stars, sex and nudity buzz : 08/17/2012

Epix Sized Clips from Roger Corman's Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader

by Foywonder

From legendary producer Roger Corman, the director of Dinoshark, and the screenwriter of Sharktopus comes Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader. The EPIX original movie is set to premiere on that network August 25th, and in anticipation of the premiere they’ve released a slew of video clips.

Former Georgia Teen USA 2007 Jena Sims stars as Cassie Stratford, an aspiring college cheerleader who consumes an experimental drug that grants her beauty and enough athletic ability to make the cheer squad. It also has a very unfortunate side effect that you should be able to ascertain from the film’s title.

Sean Young (Blade Runner) appears as Cassie’s mom, and Ted Raimi (“Xena: Warrior Princess”) plays a professor. Mary Woronov (Death Race 2000), Ryan Merriman (“Pretty Little Liars”), and Treat Williams (Deep Rising) also appear in this cheerily campy Corman creation.

EPIX has made available the film’s trailer and a half-dozen clips from the film in anticipation of the Saturday, August 25th, premiere date. As you’ll see, there are giant spiders in addition to the giant boobs. There’s also an evil giant cheerleader for our super-sized heroine to engage in giant-sized Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling action on the 50-yard line in front of a packed stadium. The only thing that appears to be missing from the film is an introduction by either Gilbert Gottfried or Rhonda Shear.

The channel that brings you big movies gets even bigger with their first EPIX Original Picture, Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader, premiering on August 25th at 10:00 pm ET.

* It's always nice to hear the soft Georgian accent - perhaps the most sexiest Southern drawl. Miss Sims epitomises it perfectly.

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Chilling Realities, Beggaring Belief In 'Compliance'

by Ian Buckwalter

 

The words "inspired by true events" are the first things to appear on screen in Compliance, Craig Zobel's queasy thriller of discomfort. I knew that this was the case going in, and had heard the basic facts of the "strip-search prank-call scam" that serves as the movie's inspiration. But I didn't know the full details — and as an ever-increasing load of humiliation and indignity was piled on the teenage fast-food worker at its center, I found myself getting angry with the film, assuming that Zobel was amping up the severity of real events for dramatic effect.

The facts of the situation as I thought I understood them seemed harrowing enough: As it plays out in the movie, Sandra (Ann Dowd), the manager of an Ohio "Chickwich" fast-food joint, receives a call from a man (Pat Healy) falsely claiming to be a police detective; he accuses a cashier, Becky (Dreama Walker), of stealing money from a customer. "Officer Daniels" then enlists Sandra's aid in taking Becky into custody and strip-searching her.

That not only Sandra but multiple employees of the store went along with this hoax is jarring enough. The further degradations the film goes on to detail just seem like overblown narrative embellishments, except for one important fact: They all happened, too.

Compliance plays out like a twisted illustration of the conclusions reached by two of the most famous psychological experiments ever conducted: The 1961 Milgram experiment, which showed that given a legitimate authority figure issuing orders and taking responsibility, people will do as they're told, even if that means causing another person severe pain; and the 1971 Stanford prison experiment, in which normal people given the roles of prisoner and guard would play out the expectations of those assignments, often to cruel ends.

The chillingly sociopathic caller puts both of those concepts into play here, being stern with Sandra — and the other people who are later called upon to guard and search Becky — when a controlling influence is needed, but also passing along that authority, to give them their own power to wield as well. There's an eerie calm combined with a disturbing impish glee in Healy's turn as the caller, and Dowd plays Sandra with just the right mixture of uncertainty and commitment to duty; that mix creates the baseline of sympathy for her that's necessary for her to come off as both a victim and a perpetrator here.

Zobel chooses to give the viewer the role of omniscient observer here, the intent seemingly being to create a sense of dread by giving us all perspectives at once. The caller's manipulations are on full display, and Becky's impending violations are all detailed before they happen.

The director also displays extreme caution when it comes to the line between observer and voyeur: His camera doesn't shy away from Becky's nudity, but it also doesn't linger. And when her imprisonment reaches its most lurid low, Zobel recognizes the value of the Greek-tragedy approach, and mostly turns away to let our own minds fill in the blanks.

The sum total is uncomfortable, extremely difficult to watch, and it may still strike some viewers as too raw. That's all by design, and the film expertly uses all of its resources to jangle the nerves; the grimy scrape of the driving cellos in Heather McIntosh's excellent score for chamber strings is still echoing anxiously in my head.

But there is the lingering question of how much Zobel's approach really offers any enlightenment as to why this incident — and 69 others similar to it over a period of 12 years — happened. Making the viewer privy to all sides does heighten the tension, but it also offers a certain distance. It's too easy to watch what's going on and think, "Well, I would certainly never fall for that trick or do any of these awful things."

That's a convenient and not entirely honest reprieve, given the Milgram results suggesting that that's simply not true for more than two-thirds of us. It feels like a missed opportunity; Zobel might have drawn us into the film more fully, made us complicit in Sandra's misdeeds. Even without that added mirror, though, Compliance is still a wickedly compelling thriller, a skin-crawling, stranger-than-fiction examination of the darkest power of authority.
 

'Compliance' Star Dreama Walker on the Controversial Film: 'I felt a tremendous desire to be a part of the whole discussion

Why She's On Our Radar: Despite not winning an award at Sundance for her breakout turn in "Compliance," Craig Zobel's acclaimed and controversial drama, 26-year-old actress Dreama Walker gave what was arguably one of the bravest performances in Park City this year.

In "Compliance," Walker stars as Becky, a young fast food employee who is accused of stealing from a customer after a man, under the guise of a police officer, calls the restaurant demanding to speak to her manager Sandra (Ann Dowd). What follows is a horrific true account of how the mystery caller managed to convince the young woman's supervisor (as well as others asked to help out) to commit a number of physically invasive acts, including sexual assault.

Walker is best known for her supporting role on the ABC sitcom "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23" and for appearing opposite Clint Eastwood in "Gran Torino," but "Compliance" marks her biggest on-screen role to date -- and her most challenging. As Becky, Walker is given the difficult task of engendering sympathy from the audience while also making them believe that her character would go along with what's demanded of her. She hits it out of the park, matching the lauded work of Dowd, a veteran character actress.

 

What's Next: Her latest film "The Kitchen," co-starring Bryan Greenberg and Laura Prepon, recently closed the GenArt Film Festival in New York. "I have a couple of little things here and there," Walker tells Indiewire, "and then I'm going back to the show ('Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23') at the end of next week."

How did Craig sell the premise to you initially?
Well it was kind of a funny story how it all happened. I was on the set of "The Sitter" one day, directed by his friend David Gordon Green. David was checking his phone and checking his email and came over to me and was like, "Hey your name just got thrown in the bowl for a movie that I'm producing." And I was like, "Ooooh! Pick me!" -- trying to make him feel uncomfortable. And he said, "Well, it's really not anything like this. It's very dark." And I was like, "I can do dark!" I had no idea what it was about, and obviously we didn't really go into it because we were at work. Then I got wind of what the story was about, and I remembered the incident when it happened in 2004, and this always kind of resonated with me as something that I thought was intriguing and fascinating. I read the script, and I thought Craig had done a really fantastic job of telling this story and also that it was going to come from a really cool perspective. And that it was going to try to fill in the gaps of these true events that took place and how they all got there. I felt a tremendous desire to be a part of the whole discussion and justification of how my character did what she did.

How scared were you to take this role on?
Terrified, to be honest. I knew that psychologically it was going to be taxing. I knew that this wasn't going to be a walk in the park. People still would have a hard time believing! We had to really bring a lot of truth to it and make it really, really believable.

How did you make Becky's actions believable for yourself? So many folks have walked out of this film going, "Well I would never go along with that."
Well, Craig and I had a lot of really honest, open discussions about a lot of similar situations with it; lower-stakes ones that were more meaningless and trivial. Experiences in our lives where we'd been accused of something that we weren't guilty of and there came a certain point where someone that you know and have a relationship with is accusing you of something. All of a sudden you find yourself second guessing yourself. We had discussions about how it's very primal and evolved for people to go along with something because everyone else is doing it.
Whether it's something as simple as going into a conversation with a lady on the street, and then before you know it she's sold you 300 dollars worth of clothing and you're buying it even though you don't need it or want it. Those things happen almost on a daily basis. We're all put in situations where we do something because we think that we're supposed to, or we think that we have to. To me that was incredibly intriguing. Also I wanted to connect the dots from A to B and explain how it got there for my character.

Did Craig have you meet the victim on which your character is based?
No. I have never spoken with the victim. I understand that she is married and has a child and wants to stay out of the limelight and I completely understand that, especially given what she's been through. She's probably trying to make a recovery on a daily basis and I respect that.

What kind of pressure did you feel to live up to her and portray her in a realistic light?
I watched interviews with her and I felt that she seemed like a very sweet, docile girl from Kentucky. I didn't really have any interest in trying to duplicate her and do exactly what she did. I had more of an interest in the relationship between Sandra and I, and furthering the whole arc of what happens when something traumatic like that is forced upon you. The stages that you go through. Craig and I had a lot of conversations about how initially we certainly didn't want it to stay on one level, because I didn't think that was at all natural. We wanted there to be an arc.

Were you surprised by the divisive reaction at Sundance? Especially given that it is based on a true story.
Sure. That definitely came as a shock. I think there were a lot of people who bought tickets for the movie or acquired tickets for the movie and didn't know what the film was about. I think that if I didn't know what it was about I wouldn't be too pleased either [laughs]. I think you kind of have to be prepared for something like that, and obviously there were people in the audience who had a tremendous sensitivity to the subject matter. I was surprised by that, but I think that now we're in a better situation because people have talked about the film and people have an idea about what happens in it and know to stay away if they have any particular unresolved issues.

What did you walk away with from the Sundance experience?
[Laughs] Oh gosh! Well, I had been dreaming about going to Sundance since I was a little girl, since I first learned what an independent movie was. I grew up in a town that didn't have a lot of access to those types of things. So that was a dream realized for me.
I was really inspired and made to feel fantastic by the people who actually enjoyed the film for what it was and sort of got it. I was super happy to have lengthy conversations with people who wanted to come up to me and discuss what it meant to them. I'm still happy to have those conversations. That's what initially inspired me to do it in the first place. 

'Compliance,' A Low Budget Indie, Might Be The Most Disturbing Movie Ever Made 

Lucas Kavner 

 

NEW YORK -- Halfway through a special screening of "Compliance," the deeply unsettling new film from writer/director Craig Zobel, a woman stood up, yelled out, "Give me a f*cking break," and walked out of the theater. As the film progressed, other women joined her. At least eight by one count, although in the question-and-answer session following the film, someone suggested that actually 10 had left during the screening.

"Compliance," shown on Tuesday night at a special screening and panel put together by Psychology Today, is not a Holocaust drama or a gory war film or a Lars Von Trier genital mutilation-fest. It is a psychological thriller grounded in an almost documentary level of reality and will probably hold up as one of the most well-paced, brilliantly acted films of the year.

It was also, without a doubt, the most uncomfortable film experience of my life. Certainly it makes one question what constitutes a "great" film; though I don't really wish the experience of viewing "Compliance" on anybody, I also haven't stopped thinking about it.

Further compounding the psychologically disturbing nature of "Compliance" is the fact that it is based almost entirely on true events.

According to the film, in the decade leading up to 2004, more than 70 cases were reported of a man, pretending to be a police officer or some other authority figure, who called a fast-food restaurant and requested strip searches of employees. Each incident shared a similar pattern: The purported officer claimed to need help to solve a case, which required a manager to remove a female employee's clothing and, in some cases, perform sexual acts on her.

The film is based on one such event, which occurred at a McDonald's in Mount Washington, Ky., in 2004. In Zobel's version, Dreama Walker stars as Becky, a blond, teenage employee of "Chickwich," a fictional fast-food restaurant in Ohio, and Ann Dowd stars -- in an epically nuanced, Oscar-worthy performance -- as her well-meaning manager, Sandra.

Early in the film, Sandra receives a call from a man claiming to be a local police officer named "Officer Daniels," who explains that Becky has been accused of stealing from a customer. Officer Daniels then instructs Sandra to remove Becky's clothes, her belongings, to help him "find the money," and then -- well, it just gets worse from there.

The most unsettling part of "Compliance" (or rather, one of about a million unsettling parts -- really the whole movie is one long, unsettling part) is that, from an outsider's perspective, the whole escalation could have easily been avoided. As an audience member, one knows very early on that the caller isn't really a cop, so why doesn't this manager know? Why does she go along with it? Why does young Becky not resist?

At the panel following the screening, psychologist Stanton Peele suggested anyone might do the same thing in a similar situation. Though when the audience was pressed -- "How many people in this room think they would have gone along with this scenario if they were present?" Peele asked -- no one raised their hands.

"Nobody in this room would have fallen for it? Really?" Peele pressed. "Well, that's such a wonderful thing."

Then some of the audience members became vocal. A woman in the back suggested that any "intelligent" person would know right away that the caller wasn't real, and obviously no cop would request this type of thing from a woman over the phone in a public place. Another man suggested it was a matter of "IQ," and that anyone with a "high IQ" wouldn't fall for it.

"These people were working at a fast-food store!" the man explained.

Someone else, however, who said he was also "highly educated," admitted that he wouldn't have asked if the man was a real police officer. "If you truly believed there was a threat of consequence, you would have done it," he said. "A police officer is calling, saying you might lose your job, you might be held accountable if you don't do these things, you might follow through."

"This man didn't call banks and law firms, he called places of vulnerability," one audience member said.

Psychology Today editor-at-large Hara Estroff suggested that the events in the film paralleled those of the famous experiments done by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram in the early 1960s, in which he asked various subjects to deliver intense shocks to people in other rooms who wrongly answered a series of questions. The shocks increased with each incorrect answer.

Milgram had surveyed professors and students before carrying out the experiments, and all had told him they would never do such a thing; yet, when the actual experiments were carried out, 65 percent followed through until the end, administering the final 450-volt shock to the unseen victims.

Estroff quoted Milgram: "Ordinary people simply doing their jobs without any particular hostility can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority."

Indeed, Peele suggested, the recent Sandusky trial is a perfect example of this.

"The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children Sandusky victimized," he said. "They never demonstrated through actions or words any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky's victims until after he was arrested."

Regardless of whether or not "Compliance" is a film likely to draw widespread interest -- it also divided audiences when it screened at Sundance this year -- one can't deny the questions it raises.

The soft-spoken Zobel seemed to appreciate the intense reactions elicited by his film, and to look forward to seeing how the rest of the world would respond. Though he said he originally had no idea what he was getting into when he began working on the film, he said the stories of these prank calls had immediately "riveted" him.

"They're sensationalist news that you read about, and then the next day it's not there anymore," he said. "I'd immediately had such an adverse reaction to it, where I said, 'There's no way I would be that guy.' But I had to ask myself, 'Am I being honest, that I've never been in my life been in a situation where an authority figure has asked me to do something I disagreed with, but I've gone along with it because I didn't feel I had the agency to say no?'"
"Compliance" will be released in select theaters on Friday, August 17.

Sneak Peek Of Highly Disturbing Indie Film 'Compliance'

In a sneak preview earlier this week, a number of people walked out of the theater during "Compliance," the low budget indie film which Jeannette Catsoulis at the New York Times called it, "a slow-motion punch to the groin."

"Compliance" takes its plot from 70 cases preceding 2004, in which a man who worked as a correctional officer called fast-food restaurants pretending to be a real police officer who was trying to apprehend a thief. He would order the managers of various restaurants to strip search a female employee, or commit far worse acts. "Compliance," by writer/director Craig Zobel, is based upon true events that occurred at a Washington, Ky. McDonalds, though the film is set at fictional fast food joint 'Chickwich.' Dreama Walker stars as the pretty teenage employee forced to endure unimaginable acts of debasement, with Ann Dowd as the well-intentioned manager who blindly follows the instructions from the mysterious caller on the other end of the line.

Thus far the reviews have been mixed, but the physical reaction to the film has remained constant. Rolling Stone called it "torture to sit through," and NPR said it was "extremely difficult to watch."

"Compliance" hits theaters August 17. You can read our in-depth reaction to the controversial film here and check your local theater listings to see it for yourself.

 

Dreama Walker: Subject to “COMPLIANCE”

Perhaps no horror-movie heroine has gone through as grueling an experience as Becky, the fast-food counter girl played by Dreama Walker in the new psychological thriller COMPLIANCE. Best known for her part in this year’s well-receive sitcom DON’T TRUST THE B---- IN APARTMENT 23, Walker gives a brave and heart-wrenching performance in the fact-based film.

Beginning its platform release today from Magnolia Pictures (see a list of playdates hereand our review here), COMPLIANCE is set in an Ohio ChickWich restaurant where the supervisor, Sandra (Ann Dowd), receives a phone call from a man (THE INNKEEPERS’ Pat Healy) claiming to be a police officer, and that Becky has been accused of stealing from a customer’s purse. “Officer Daniels” asks Sandra to take Becky to a back room and search her for the allegedly pilfered money—just the first in a series of increasingly humiliating and shocking acts performed by Sandra and others at the behest of the authoritative-sounding voice on the phone. The result is the year’s most disturbing film, and a breakout role for Walker, who discussed it with FANGORIA.

FANGORIA: What were your first impressions when you read the COMPLIANCE script?

DREAMA WALKER: I was really excited that it was addressing an issue that happened in the news that I found to be very interesting, and I was glad somebody was tackling the subject, because the story had struck me as odd and fascinating and intriguing when it happened in 2004. I remember exactly when it happened; I was a senior in high school, and at the time I had never worked in a fast-food restaurant but I’d worked in retail, and I was particularly struck by the fact that as an employee, you could be taken advantage of like that in your workplace by your boss. I was also very happy that somebody like Craig Zobel was attached to it, and would do the story justice and not try to sensationalize it in any way. 

FANG: So you were familiar with Zobel’s work before you joined to the project?

WALKER: I hadn’t seen [Zobel's previous feature] GREAT WORLD OF SOUND, but I Googled him and instantly fell in love with his cartoon stuff, and loved meeting him as a person and was very excited about working with him after that. 

FANG: Did part of your preparation for and playing this role involve putting yourself in the headspace of the real people, and trying to figure out why they went along with the caller for so long?

WALKER: Absolutely. I think if anyone can understand that, it’s someone like me, just because of my upbringing and the way I understand things and how eager I am to please at most times. I really understood where this girl was coming from, and how when you’re driving in your car and see [police] lights behind you, you can have that moment where you think your whole world is going to collapse and you’re going to lose everything, and realistically, that’s probably not going to happen. When she was accused of that stuff, she really thought, at that moment, that she was going to lose everything. So getting myself prepared for that was kind of easy, because I’m a bit of a neurotic scaredy-cat anyway.

FANG: How was it working with Ann Dowd as your onscreen supervisor?

WALKER: She’s one of the most gracious and kind human beings I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. She’s immensely talented and just has a beautiful heart and soul, and if I could work with her every day I would be ecstatic. 

FANG: What about your offscreen relationship with Healy? Did you stay in character, or was it a happier relationship when you weren’t doing your scenes?

WALKER: Absolutely happier. It’s so funny because for such a serious dramatic movie, I found everyone involved to be incredibly humorous and very funny. Craig, as you may know, is hilarious. The ideas he has and the things he says are super-funny, and Pat Healy’s the same way. He has a fantastic sense of humor and is a lot of fun to be around, and Ann is just brilliant; she joined in on the jokes, too. So it was really funny to just snap back into [the film’s] reality and just be like, “Oh, this is not where my character is supposed to be. I really need to focus in on being abused and uncomfortable.” [Laughs] I had fantasies at the time of doing a comedy with the exact same cast and crew. That would’ve been great.

FANG: Healy said that you filmed all the call scenes live—that he was on another set actually speaking to you while you were shooting.

WALKER: I can’t imagine doing that any other way, and I’m so thankful we had the opportunity to do it. There were times when the phone would die, and that was frustrating [laughs]. But it was great for Pat, Ann and I and the rest of the cast to have that opportunity to play off each other as actors do in normal circumstances. 

FANG: How was your experience of seeing COMPLIANCE for the first time at Sundance, in the sense of both reacting to it yourself and the way others reacted to it?

WALKER: It was truly surreal. I definitely knew that the film was going to be tough for a lot of people to watch, because it’s not comfortable subject matter. No one really likes to watch anything where humans ultimately betray each other and turn out not to be good people. And there are so many instances when somebody could’ve walked in and saved the whole thing, but people just keep failing. That’s frustrating, but I had no idea that the reaction we got at Sundance would even be a possibility. 

FANG: You also recently did a genre film that does have a lighter side: VAMPERIFICA, in which you play the best friend of a flamboyant young man who turns out to be the reincarnation of a vampire master. How did you become involved in that film?

WALKER: Not a very exciting story there: I went in and auditioned for it, and the film was really a dark comedy, and I’ve always appreciated that genre. So I did the movie and had a lot of fun.

FANG: It’s a very different take on vampire films. Is that a genre you’re a fan of?

WALKER: I’m definitely intrigued by vampires. I mean, I remember growing up as a kid and being super-pale and wanting someone to identify with [laughs]. I was always interested in vampires, and movie about a gay vampire seemed exciting and adorable to me.

FANG: Carmen—played by Martin Yurkovic, who also wrote the story—is certainly a different vampire protagonist than we’re used to.

WALKER: Exactly. He’s such a little turd, but he’s still so likable! He has such anger-management problems in the movie, but he’s still so likeable.

FANG: Is he as much of a character in person as he plays in VAMPERIFICA?

WALKER: More so. Absolutely more so. He’s just wildly inappropriate, he absolutely has no filter and is just crazy. 

FANG: Are you a fan of horror films in general, and would you be interested in doing more?

WALKER: I actually hate horror films, to be honest [laughs]. I really do! I get very scared very easily; I’m a very sensitive person. I scream much louder than I should when people try to play tricks on me and scare me. I get that there’s meaning behind some of them and that they’re deeper than what they seem on the surface, but I’m more interested in psychological thrillers like COMPLIANCE.

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Nicole Forester Previews BOSS Season Two; Premieres Tonight On Starz 

Nicole Forester was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2008 for her work in GUIDING LIGHT. Since then she has starred in films such as The Double, become a mother of two, and moved to Michigan.

Forester currently plays Maggie Zajac in BOSS, which kicks off its second season tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Starz. We Love Soaps recently caught up with Forester to talk about the new season and how Maggie's role will evolve.

"In Season One, she appears to be the smiling, dutiful, supportive politician's wife," Forester says, catching us up on the action.  "She is the wife of the young gubernatorial candidate [Ben Zajac, played by Jeff Hephner].   And you'd never know until you get near Season One that she is actually a powerhouse of her own.  She's a very strong woman that by the end of Season One you discover is really calling shots and keeping him in line to win the primary."

"In Season Two you'll see a lot more of Maggie," she teases.  "You'll see her taking the reins and you'll see a little bit more of Maggie and Ben's relationship.  What I like about it, and what I think is really fascinating to watch, is that it's kind of like watching Tom and Meredith Kane (Kelsey Grammer and Connie Nielsen) years ago when he was first running for office.  By watching Maggie and Ben, it gives you some indication of how they got to be where they are, how a political couple comes to be a 'political couple' more than a husband and wife."

"I see Maggie as a fusion between Hillary Clinton and Martha Stewart," Forester reveals.  "Maggie is very adept at smiling and appearing the serene, peaceful loving wife, while underneath it all she's actually a business woman who's very driven and serious and can really be a ball-buster when she needs to be."

Be sure to watch the Season Two premiere of BOSS, "Louder Than Words," on Friday, August 17 at 9 p.m. on Starz.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Look for more with Forester on BOSS and her roles since GUIDING LIGHT, including motherhood, next week on We Love Soaps.

 

* Oh Nicole.......her Maggie Zajac is so mysterious. Are we going to see the true nature of Maggie? More revealing perhaps......c'mon Nicole - do it for team America. We can't let team Canada and Britain win the nudity gold.

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Bitty of the Week: Yvonne Strahovski 

This weeks Bitty is: Yvonne Strahovski. This Australian native, born to Polish immigrants attended the University of Western Sydney’s School of Contemporary Arts to study Performance Arts, graduating in 2003. Shortly afterwards, she landed her first role on television in Double the Fist: Fear Factory (2004).

Since then she continued to fill her portfolio by casting in many other Australian television programs, then In 2007, she made her big screen debut in Gone. Her performance with this Australian production caught the attention of casting directors in Hollywood. With this attention, she decided to move from Australia to Los Angeles, USA and immediately landed her breakthrough role as Sarah Walker in the television series Chuck (2007). 

Since the premier of Chuck, Yvonne has stared in such films as The Canyon, and Killer Elite with Jason Statham, Clive Owen, and Robert De Niro. She has also made her impact on the gaming world giving her voice and time to extremely successful games such as Mass Effect 2 and The 3rd Birthday. As for Yvonnes current work she is to star in season 7 of another very successful television series Dexter. 

Yvonne Strahovski, thank you for being our bitty of the week.

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Kaya Scodelario filming a new music video for Robbie Williams.

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There's Something About Cherry

"About Cherry" (102 minutes) is available now on demand at IFC, iTunes, Amazon Instant and SundanceNow. Opens theatrically September 21, 2012 in New York.
by Odie Henderson

After reading the synopsis for "About Cherry," I figured I had it pegged. Here's a movie about a fresh-faced, clean-cut American girl named Angelina who goes the photographic Full Monty before graduating to porn. "Oh brother," I thought. "Another cautionary tale." 

In American cinema, you just can't enjoy sex. There has to be some consequence for all the ejaculations of "oh god!" and "yes I said yes I will Yes." If you're a man, you tend to get off scot free. But a woman who enjoys the same activity might as well be struck by lightning onscreen. So I expected poor Angelina to run afoul of drugs, sexual abuse and possibly fatal violence. The press materials seemed to support my supposition: "But Angelina's newfound ideal lifestyle soon comes apart at the seams," it ominously states. I braced myself for the worst. Eighteen-year old Angelina (Ashley Hinshaw) lives in Southern California with her younger sister (Maya Raines), her alcoholic mother (Lili Taylor) and Mama's latest man. Angelina yearns to escape her dismal home life, so with a little coaxing from her rock band boyfriend (Johnny Weston), she visits his photographer buddy Vaughn (Ernest Waddell). Vaughn shoots erotic photos, and Angelina is both erotic and photogenic. The photo shoot is such a rousing success that Weston demands Angelina avoid Vaughn for future shoots. Angelina dumps the rocker.

With enough money to blow Long Beach for good, Angelina leaves home without telling her mother. Tagging along is Andrew ("Slumdog Millionaire" Dev Patel), her BFF whom she treats like a puppy. She pats him on the head repeatedly throughout "About Cherry," and he follows her around as if she were made of Kibbles 'n Bits. I assumed Andrew was gay, since the two share a bed and when they move into the home of a gay man named Paco (Vincent Palo), they both mention they are not a couple. Angelina does things no woman would do to a straight man she had no intention of screwing, like putting her head in his lap and undressing in front of him. Andrew allows this to happen without much reaction. When Paco takes Andrew to a gay nightclub in the Castro District (the film was shot in San Francisco), and Andrew has a great time, I ignored the sloppy mixed signals I was being sent by the screenplay and placed Andrew on the same team.

At the same time Andrew and Paco are trying to catch a cab in front of the Castro's Twin Peaks bar (no easy task), Angelina is serving drinks at a strip club. She meets Francis (James Franco), an arrogant lawyer whose buddy gets bounced for getting too familiar with the entertainment. Francis gives her a huge tip, but her co-worker gives her an even bigger one: If she's OK with taking nudie pics, she should try a place specializing in fetish porn. "They pay $800," says the co-worker. Angelina christens herself Cherry and gives the place a call.

When Cherry pops in for an interview, Jake (Megan Boone) throws a fascinating series of questions at her. This interview sequence feels realistic, as do the scenes inside the warehouse where the films are made. There's genuine cinematic heat and titillation when adult film director Margaret (Heather Graham, Rollergirl in "Boogie Nights") navigates Cherry through her first shoot, but the process seems authentic. I've no reason to doubt the filmmakers' expertise here: "About Cherry" is written by two people with insider knowledge of the industry, Stephen Elliott and Lorelei Lee (whose name should be familiar to fans of both Marilyn Monroe and Carol Channing). Director Elliott seems most at home at Cherry's new job; these scenes are the best in the film. When the film leaves the warehouse, it gets into plenty of narrative trouble.


I appreciated that "About Cherry" wasn't the tale of woe I expected. Elliott and Lee want to show that a person can lead a normal life as an adult film actor, and can even climb the ranks to a behind the camera job.
And the characters enjoy sex without karmic repercussion. Unfortunately, this plot is accomplished by stacking the narrative deck to sometimes absurd proportion, resulting in the same type of one-sided argument as the standard cautionary tale. (Spoilers Ahead.) When Angelina's mother finds out what she does, she rails against it. "But," the film basically says "she's an unreliable alcoholic!" After Angelina starts dating the coked-out Francis, he too turns on her, calling her job "disgusting" before damn near killing them both in a drug-fueled car accident.
The worst narrative offenses are reserved for Andrew and Jillian, Margaret's lover of 8 years. Jillian senses (correctly) the sexual tension between Margaret and Angelica. Her relationship with Margaret could have been a valuable subplot about the difficulties of dating someone outside of the porn business. Instead, Jillian is reduced to an angry harpy whose inability to accept Margaret's job or her co-workers would never have translated into 8 years together. After a bout of angry sex, Jillian disappears from the movie forever, giving Margaret an almost clear path to pick Cherry as her new lover.
"About Cherry" kicks away the last obstacle in that path by disposing of Andrew in a manner that's borderline offensive. It turns out that Andrew is not only straight, but after months of spooning with the girl he's in love with, he also must have the will power of a saint. At least, that is, until he subscribes to Cherry's porn channel. When Angelina catches Andrew unwrapping his cherry bomb while watching her, she freaks out. I thought "Here's a brown person who, for the entire film thus far, has been neutered like a 1950's movie Negro while this pretty blonde pets his head like a dog and puts her head in his crotch. When he turns out to be straight and horny, the movie slaps his hand?!!" The writers must have read my mind, because Andrew pretty much said what I was thinking. Angelina responds "You love me, just not enough to jerk off to somebody else!!!" Um, WHY THE HELL would he use somebody else's naked ass, lady?
With two topic experts behind the camera, one would hope for a more penetrating look at the subject matter. Instead, despite the actors' sometimes valiant attempts, I learned very little about Cherry or her profession. Though "About Cherry" takes the road less travelled for films of this ilk, it uses the same clichéd blueprint with which the more travelled road was built.

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Review: Cinemax's 'Strike Back' returns, still kicking butt and taking names

Rhona Mitra joins the fun as Stonebridge and Scott reunite for more action

by Alan Sepinwall

Early in the new season of Cinemax's action drama "Strike Back" (it returns tomorrow night at 10), soldier Damien Scott is asked how an American wound up as a key member of a British special forces unit.

"It's a long story," he says.

"But is it a good story?"  he's asked.

"Nope," he replies. "Just long."

It's an in-joke for fans of the series' first Cinemax season(*), which explained exactly how the reckless Scott (Sullivan Stapleton) came to work for Section 20 alongside straight-laced English soldier Michael Stonebridge (Philip Winchester). But the exchange also nicely sums up the philosophy of "Strike Back." It's a show without pretensions. It knows exactly what it is — a straightforward blend of action and sex designed to appeal to people who already subscribed to Cinemax for one or both of those things — and doesn't apologize for that, but simply aspires to be the best version of itself that it can be. It is, as I realized midway through last season, much better than it has any need to be.

(*) "Strike Back" technically debuted on the UK's Sky1 in 2010. Cinemax partnered up with Sky for the following season, which introduced a whole new cast of characters but occasionally referenced people and events from the UK-only season. So for American viewers, we're entering the show's second season; for Brits, this will be the third.

It is, first and foremost, an action show about two men who are among the very best in the world at what they do — at one point, a terrorist complains that Scott and Stonebridge have each received roughly $6 million worth of training, while his own men's training cost only whatever it cost to buy their bullets — and "Strike Back" repeatedly illustrates their skills in exciting ways. The various gun, knife and fistfights — and, in one case, an ax fight — may not match up to what you see in "The Expendables 2," but they're among the best I've ever seen on the small screen, and Stapleton and Winchester carry themselves incredibly well throughout these sequences.

The series also makes terrific use of its international locations, this season using its South African production based to double for a number of other countries. In one episode, Stonebridge has a bare-chested wrestling match with a Tuareg nomad in a ring of fire in the middle of the desert, and it's the best-looking shot you'll see on television this summer that's not on "Breaking Bad."

Speaking of exposed flesh, there's an unwritten rule that Stapleton and one of the female guest stars must get naked once per episode — this is, after all, the channel with the long-standing nickname "Skinemax." But the sex scenes never feel as shoehorned in as they do on, say, a number of Starz's original dramas. There's a tradition of action heroes having sex in between all the killing, after all, and on occasion the suggestion that Scott does it to cope with a lifestyle where he could be brutally killed at any moment rings true, and not just as a transparent excuse for more nudity.

It's in dealing with the emotional toll of the job where "Strike Back" really earns its money, in fact. If it were just a collection of well-choreographed explosions and gunfire, it would still be an entertaining watch. But there's a genuine effort made to show the impact of all this mayhem on both the men perpetuating it and the people who are witnesses and/or victims to it. The shootouts look cool, but Scott, Stonebridge and the people they encounter across the globe — including their new colleague, Rachel Dalton, played well by Rhona Mitra — don't just shrug off the violence. Wherever Section 20 visits (the season's early episodes are set in Somalia and Algeria), there's at least lip service paid to the geopolitics of the area, and the characters who get caught up in the action are sketched out enough so that you feel something when they either die or improbably survive.

The season sets up something of an emotional role reversal for Scott and Stonebridge, and also gets some self-aware comic mileage out of everything they've been through. Sooner or later in almost every story, one of them is taken prisoner and has to be freed by the other; when Stonebridge is the rescuer in one early episode, he and Scott get into an argument over who's saved the other more.

The series uses an interlocking story structure, with a collection of two-part episodes that function on their own as well-crafted low-budget action movies (Cinemax is airing the first two episodes together on Friday to make this clear, with one per week after that), but which combine to tell a larger story. Here, the pieces include Dalton's takeover of Section 20, an amoral South African businessman played by Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister from "Game of Thrones"), the reason Scott left America, and Stonebridge's attempt to deal with a major personal setback.

I've only seen the first four hours, but if last season is any guide, the picture should cohere nicely by the end — and inevitably involve a fireball in the distance while Scott and Stonebridge take aim at a few dozen attackers. 

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Where We Ask Doug Aarniokoski: Does Nurse 3D Live Up to Those Wild Posters?

Out promoting his latest film, The Day, director Douglas Aarniokoski was happy to talk with Shock Till You Drop about his upcoming thriller, Nurse 3D.  

Shot last year in Toronto, the film features a cast which includes Boardwalk Empire's Paz De La Huerta, Katrina Bowden (Piranha 3DD), Judd Nelson and Boris Kodjo.  De La Huerta plays a woman who is a nurse by day and a killer at night, someone who uses her sexuality to lure and slaughter cheating men.

To date, two teaser posters have been released by Lionsgate, the first featuring the film's leading lady naked and covered in blood.  The second being a close-up of, presumably, her bare breast and a man's mouth hovering just before her nipple.  With Aarniokoski in the interview hot seat, we asked: "Does Nurse 3D live up to those crazy teasers?"

He told us:   "Nurse is a crazy thriller in the vein of Fatal Attraction and Black Swan set in a hospital. Paz De La Huerta is a wildcat and she plays a crazy character.  I hope the movie lives up to those posters, I feel that it does.  The inspiration for the posters is based on the movie that we shot.  There's a lot of blood, there's a lot of sex, a lot of guts and a lot of fun.   It's as advertised." It's going to come out next year, we don't have a release date yet," he said, citing the recent Lionsgate/Summit Entertainment merger for the slight release delay (the joining studios needed to re-schedule their respective line-ups).   But rest assured, when the insanity arrives on screen, "Oh, it's definitely 3D.  This movie goes for it, it's about a woman who kills people because they're getting in her way of a plan she has in her mind.  It's very on the edge.  I have my fingers crossed for the ratings board." After seeing those posters, hopefully the MPAA won't be waiting for the film with a pair of scissors.

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Read Our Favorite Parts From The Canyons Producer’s Over-The-Top Essay About Lilo

by Halle Kiefer

Ah, but tell us how you really feel. Braxton Pope, producer on Lindsay Lohan‘s most recent film The Canyons, posted an essay about Lilo to the movie’s Facebook page today praising everything from Lindsay’s perfect fact to her “flawless” line reads to her classic style. The whole thing is so complimentary, we’d be inclined to think Lohan paid for the amazing publicity…except Braxton also zings Linday’s driving ability.”So, did I say good? She was actually great. Not that the shoot was without its challenges. Do I want to drive in a car with Lindz?,” Pope writes. “No. No I don’t. Ever.” Hmmm, that part seems to check out. We guess that means the rest of Braxton’s gushing is…true? Take a look at our favorite segments and let us know what you think:

• It turns out the Lindsay Lohan/ Marilyn Monroe parallel is true! Maybe!: “Maybe it was being in Palm Springs recently where Marilyn Monroe is alive and well, looking at me from my hotel room at the Riviera, from the lobby of the Saguaro, a giant Marilyn statue on the main drag, or maybe it was Schrader’s interest in the John Huston film “The Misfits,” Marilyn’s last completed film as well as Clark Gable’s, but you can’t help but feel some parallels between Marilyn and Lindsay.”
• Lindsay Lohan is the hotness: “She is what the French call ‘La Femme Eternelle.” She has a beauty, a facial architecture that is naturally stunning and best suited for capture with the least amount of makeup.”
• If only Lindsay had been working in the ’40s: “Schrader terms the current Lindsay as ‘brassy’ and I think her husky voice and command of the screen evokes a certain toughness adding depth to her beauty. Add, of course, her charisma, that sine qua non of a true star, and that is what you get. I think she could be brilliant in a classic film noir.
• Lindsay will blow your mind in every way: “It is impossible to not be impressed by Lindsay’s command of the script, her ability to run off pages and pages of dialogue flawlessly, her active and vital engagement in the storytelling, in camera angles, in the mechanics of filmmaking.”
• On the other hand…some of this essay is really hard to swallow: “[A] brief thanks to Dina for the popcorn and beverages at casa Lohan while Lindsay was getting ready for some nighttime filming.” Say whaaaaa?

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Sitting Down: Kelly Overton From True Blood
[VIDEO] Kelly Overton talks True Blood and what sport she wishes was in the Olympics.

by Nash Herrington

Kelly Overton is undeniably hot, and if you've seen her on True Blood... well you already know that.

We had the chance to sit down with her and talk about joining the popular show, as well as a few other topics like what sports should be in the Olympics and what should be turned into a XXX parody!

* Kelly is so cutesy shy in describing her scenes from True Blood.

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Bold and Sexy Photoshoot of Paoli Dam

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Jennifer Hawkins : Myer Spring/Summer 2013 Collection in Sydney [August]2012

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Miss USA Olivia Culpo : New York Premiere of 'Cosmopolis' held at The Museum of Modern Art

* the reigning beauty queen is eager to kick-start her Hollywood career and already laying the foundation.....keep your fingers crossed boys because this chick and her bod belongs in the T-and-A genre just like Kelli McCarty. Praying she finds an agent who thinks likewise. But the slow demise of softcore genre means we can hope she will be a regular fixture on shows fronted by Starz and Skinemax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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See the raunchy 1st trailer for Robot Chicken's DC Comics special
This fall, the guys at Robot Chicken are set to give the same treatment to DC Comics that they gave to Star Wars: a full-on stop-motion special full of raunchy gags and parodies. Now the trailer for the special originally released at this year's San Diego Comic-Con has hit the net, and it doesn't disappoint.

Just as they sought George Lucas' approval for the Star Wars specials, Robot Chicken secured the cooperation of both Warner Bros. and DC Comics for this particular sci-fi parody adventure, and they even got DC's Chief Creative Officer (and Justice League, Green Lantern and Aquaman writer) to help out.

They also packed some serious star power into the special with a cast that features Neil Patrick Harris as Two-Face, Alfred Molina as Lex Luthor, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern and Megan Fox as Lois Lane, along with Robot Chicken regulars Seth Green, Matt Senreich, Clare Grant, Breckin Meyer and more.

Check out the trailer below to see, among other things, Batman getting his back broken (again), Superman deflecting bullets from all over his body, Sinestro trying to shave and, of course, Aquaman getting pranked.

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Bollywood star Amy Jackson sweet beauty queen 'bum'

 

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Shia LaBeouf : 
The sex scenes in Nymphomaniac 'will be real'

SHIA LaBeouf has revealed he could be having sex for real in his latest movie venture.

The American actor has signed up to star in Lars von Trier's new erotic drama The Nymphomaniac, about a woman's sexual awakening.

And the 26-year-old Transformers star said: "There's a disclaimer at the top of the script that basically says we're doing it for real. Everything that is illegal, we'll shoot in blurred images. Other than that, everything is happening."

He added of controversial director von Trier: "He's very dangerous. He's the most dangerous dude I've ever showed up for. I'm terrified."

Shia will star alongside Nicole kidman, Willem Dafoe, Stellan Skarsgård and Charlotte Gainsbourg in the flick, which is due to begin filming in September. 

* That means Lars is still looking for another female performer to complete the cast or someone unknown already selected but yet to be listed in the credits. There is no way Shia is going to bang Kidman. Charlotte Gainsbourg? He will punch himself in the balls rather than do a sex scene with her. No we can expect a relative newcomer to share the bed with Shia......
Who the hell I'm kidding....of course Shia and Charlotte will be paired together.....nude....Charlotte the dry scarecrow.
I just want a far more attractive actress than Charlotte and far more accessible than Kidman to perform some of the nudity/sex scenes.

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Exclusive: Philip Gardiner Talks the Exorcist Chronicles

Okay guys, I’m just going to throw this out there, but Phillip Gardiner’s upcoming U.K. exorcism flick, Exorcist Chronicles, sounds freakin’ bad-ass! They seem to be taking a different approach to the tried and tested formula and giving us simply one hell of a ride.

So recently I had the opportunity to ask Phillip Gardiner a couple of questions regarding his latest offering, Exorcist Chronicles and thankfully he has happy to oblige.
To give you guys a better taste of what’s to come, check out the official teaser trailer below the interview I had with Phillip Gardiner, and let us know if this is one that interests you?

Horror-Movies: How did you come about the project, and what drew you in?
Phillip Gariner: “The film came about through a discussion with Warren Croyle of Reality Films who had, with Joe Micallef, come up with a brief concept for a film about exorcisms and two different kinds of people who chased them down. It was intended for a series on the request of several folk I can’t talk about. Taking that brief, I thought about it and decided it was something I could get my teeth into and develop, especially as it was intended to be a pilot movie for a series. I could see how lots of the myths and folktales in the world could be written into the series and as a lover of X-Files, that interested me a lot.
Needless to say the film now has a lot of subplots built in ready for any possible future series, including secretive organizations, Knights Templar and Vatican intrigue. It’s a lot deeper than your average possession film.”

HM: Judging from some early photos, can we expect a lot of gore?
PG: “There’s just about everything we could throw at it to be honest. Some of the things we did were just disgusting and I have to take my hat off to the actresses who were simply not told before hand what we were going to do. When we had 750 insects on set the noise from the crickets and locusts kind of gave it away and started the gut wrenching, especially when she discovered what we were going to do with them and her. Lots of blood, lots of bruises and a lot of stunts. You really do have to admire these actors, they all did their own stunts and hey all came away looking like they’d been in a war zone. By the end of the shoot they were even starting to second guess me with “oh, Phil, I suppose you want us to jump in the lake again now…”

HM: What is different about the Exorcist Chronicles compared to many other exorcism themed films? PG: “From the ones I’ve seen, almost everything. This isn’t about one girl, this is about thousands of them across the world. It isn’t even a normal “possession”. We had to teach the girls what we meant so they could recreate the vision. It’s more of the body and mind being taken over from within by an alien invader. It searches and tests, it wants to know all about this new body it has inhabited. But the existing mind wants to expel it. We certainly had a few laughs.”

HM: For someone who may not have heard of the project, what can they expect?
PG: “A very British film. Very bizarre. I don’t tell people what is happening, I want them to enjoy the process of trying to work it out. I also include symbols within the film that tell the tale. These can be cleverly placed objects, numbers, dates or even music and dialogue. It’s like a mystery. I suppose that comes from my background in writing books on the occult. Don’t expect Nightmare on Elm Street or Drag Me to Hell, instead, expect something very different to what you are used to. I’m not a lover of slasher films or gore just for the sake of it.
I prefer to paint to the spaces and let the imagination work, it’s much more powerful than a visual image. But, this film never stops, it’s a roller coaster and I hope people enjoy the ride and don’t want to get off!”

HM: How was casting for the film? It looks like it was quite an intense set?
PG: “Casting was a nightmare to be honest. Thanks to my Producer, Michelle Gent, it went smoothly, but choosing the right people out of so many was difficult because I want to give everybody a shot! In the end it had to come down to the acting ability and not looks or availability and I believe we have a fantastic bunch in Exorcist Chronicles.”

HM: What does the future hold past the ‘Exorcist Chronicles’? Any other films or horror related projects in the pipeline?
PG: “Here’s the plan. Before any final decisions are made myself, the studio and distributors will look at the final product. Then, depending on what we feel, we’ll decide on whether there is a theatrical release before going DVD, TV and VoD. It may be that we’ll hold off release and go to festivals. It may be that we’ll have a limited theatrical release. I just don’t know right now. But it will be released and widely. Then, again depending on what we feel, we’ll push for the TV series that it was made for.
When we’ve finished the edit for Exorcist Chronicles we have a ghost film to make and I’m hoping that some of the same actors from Exorcist will be involved because I’d love to work with them again.”

For more information, hit up their official website.
 

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Topless woman: 'Double standard' in our culture
by Dan Schenek

Moira Johnston is making big news in the Big Apple.  She proudly walks around New York City without a shirt or bra.

There’s a little-known state law that permits women to be topless anywhere men can do the same. The law has been in effect since the 1992 case of People v. Ramona Santorelli and Mary Lou Schloss where two women argued what defines ‘private or intimate parts’ in regards to breasts.  The ruling went in their favor.

Johnston told HLN’s Dr. Drew Thursday night that there is double standard between men and women in our culture concerning our bodies.

“I understand that it's not as socially acceptable and there are safety issues involved. … [but] I would like women to feel empowered … about their own bodies and go topless whenever they feel comfortable in their own social context in their own communities,” she said.

Although the 29-year-old says she is an advocate for women who choose to use their breasts in a sexual manner after revealing she works as a topless dancer, the Philadelphia native also advocates for women “being able to bear her breasts in situations that are not sexual and not commercial.”

“I am confident about my body and I was confident before I started the job, but yeah, of course, it reinforces the notion that I'm comfortable with people seeing my body in spaces such as public spaces,” she said.

Recognizing that many people don't know that going topless is legal in New York, she noted her one and only arrest earlier this spring in Union Square for not covering up -- but insists -- she's simply trying to promote equality for all women.

Privately owned institutions can still make their own rules as long as their policies apply to all people, being non-discriminative against race or sex.

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UIC Study Examines Views Toward College Students Who ‘Hook Up’

Reporting Bernie Tafoya

CHICAGO (CBS) — College student “hook-ups” are the subject of the latest study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Yes, those kinds of hook-ups.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya reports, there was a time when a young woman who slept with a lot of men was looked down upon, but the men with whom she hooked up were not.

Such attitudes are still around, but according to UIC researcher, they are not as prevalent as they once were. Now, she says college students look at hooking up for casual sex the same for women and men.

“In our study, 75 percent of students overall held men and women to the same sexual standards,” Allison said.

The study relied upon a sample of 19,000 students from the 2011 Online College Social Life survey, which includes 22 colleges. They were asked if they agreed with the statement, “If (wo)men hook up or have sex with lots of people, I respect them less.”

Of those surveyed, 48 percent judged in a negative way people who hooked up frequently, while 27 percent did not lose any respect for men or women who bed-hop. About 12 percent said they lost respect for women who hooked up frequently, but not men, and about 13 percent held the opposite view with respect to gender.

Women were more likely than men to judge both sexes negatively for hooking up frequently, with about 54 percent of women reporting that view, and more than 35 percent of men.

The study also found that men who belonged to fraternities or played on sports teams were more likely to evaluate women, but not men, in a negative fashion for hooking up.

The study also examined religion. Buddhist, Jewish, and non-affiliated students were less likely than Roman Catholics to judge people negatively for hooking up, while women who identified as evangelical or fundamentalist Christians were 76 percent more likely than Catholic women to view hooking up negatively.

In addition, the study found that gay or bisexual men and women were less likely than heterosexual students to lose respect for people for casual sexual activity. The geographic placement of the college also played a role – West Coast colleges tended more liberal in their views, Midwest colleges more conservative, and East Coast colleges somewhere in between.

Allison, a doctoral student, says the average number of hookups college students report is about two.

And as anyone who has spent time on a college campus knows, hookups do not always happen at frat parties or other social events where the cheap beer is flowing freely. At the University of Chicago – an institution known far more for its academic rigor than its social life – students set up a Web site to enable students to find each other for casual sex.

The site, originally called UChicagoHookups.com, urged students to spice things up on a campus that was described by the site’s founders as socially “repressed.” It was later renamed eduHookups.com and expanded to Northwestern University in Evanston and Columbia College in Chicago.

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