Celebrities

James Lipton is more than than just a TV personality.  The  actor, director, producer, choreographer, playwright and founder of the Actor’s Studio Drama School  is also the author of the novel Mirrors (which he adapted for TV) and the nonfiction book An Exaltation of Larks.

In mediabistro.com’s So What Do You Do? interview, Lipton spoke about how he prepares his questions for each episode of his popular Bravo show Inside the Actor’s Studio and explained why he doesn’t believe in pre-interviews.

“Nothing is handed to me. I get raw material from my researcher… and then I watch all the movies, read everything that the person has written about himself or herself, and I go through all the articles that have been written about them, and from that I distill the blue cards, which are approximately 300-500 [cards] for each person,” he told Amanda Ernst.

“And then they come to me and they’re on stage with me for three and a half to four hours, up to five or six hours, because it’s a class. The students would stay all night. I literally threw [the casts of] Mad Men and Glee out of there in the middle of the night.”

To find out which actor just wouldn’t stop crying during his Inside taping, read the full interview here.

Actress and web video producer Felicia Day has launched a nerdy YouTube channel called Geek & Sundry. The new channel will include a video version of the Sword & Laser book club and Written by a Kid–a storytelling show narrated by children and illustrated by adults.

Check it out: “Popular book club podcast, Sword & Laser, comes to life with an irreverent show hosted by Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt. The show features interviews with top authors, reviews of the hottest science fiction and fantasy books, discussion of the essential news of the week, and lots of participation from the vibrant Sword and Laser community.”

io9 has a great interview with Day, talking about her new venture. The book club will debut on April 13th and the kid’s storytelling show will be released this fall.

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Sleater-Kinney co-founder and Portlandia star Carrie Brownstein has inked a book deal with Riverhead Books.

According to the publisher, the book will tell the story of “her life in music, from ardent fan to pioneering female guitarist to comedic performer and luminary of the independent rock world.” Jud Laghi from the Jud Laghi Agency negotiated the deal with editor Megan Lynch.

In addition to working as a songwriter, Brownstein has written for The New York Times, The Believer, Slate and a Twitter page with 36,000 followers. Earlier this year, Grand Central acquired a Portlandia inspired book from Brownstein and her co-star, Fred Armisen.

The CW will shoot a pilot episode for a TV adaptation of Kiera Cass‘ not-yet-published novel, The Selection. This young-adult dystopian title has been compared to The Hunger Games and will be released on April 24th.

So far, five actors have been cast: Aimee Teegarden will play lead heroine America Singer. Ethan Peck will play love interest Prince Maxon. Sean Patrick Thomas will play a royal advisor named Sylvan. Leonor Varela will play Queen Amberly. Martin Donovan will play King Clarkson.

Here’s more from Deadline: “Based on the upcoming series of books by Kiera Cass, The Selection is described as an epic romance set 300 years in the future. Written by Elizabeth Craft & Sarah Fain and directed by Mark Piznarski, it centers on America Singer (Aimee Teegarden), a poor young woman who is chosen by lottery to participate in a competition to marry Prince Maxon (Ethan Peck) and become the next queen of a war-torn nation at a crossroads.”

Lionsgate has released a new clip from The Hunger Games movie featuring the first meeting between Katniss Everdeen and her fashion stylist Cinna (played by musician Lenny Kravitz). The clip is embedded above–what do you think?

Hunger Games book fans will note that this bit of dialogue is not featured in the actual first novel. Fans initially protested the choice, but the clip has drawn 7,000 “likes” on Facebook as of this writing. Entertainment Weekly deemed Kravitz to be “the most intriguing casting choice.”

According to contactmusic.com, Fandango executive VP of ticket sales Rick Butler saw the “biggest first day advance ticket sales in our company’s nearly 12-year history” for The Hunger Games.

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Brian Percival may direct a film adaptation of Markus Zusak‘s The Book Thief for Fox 2000.

According to Deadline, The Twilight Saga film series producer Karen Rosenfelt is already on board. Michael Petroni, the screenwriter behind The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, has written the script. Production could start as early as summer 2012.

Throughout his directorial career, Percival has largely focused on television projects. In 2010, he won the Emmy for “Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special” for his work on the drama Downton Abbey.

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The marketing team behind film adaptation of Dr. Seuss‘ The Lorax have made more than 70 deals for promotional product tie-ins.

Comedian Stephen Colbert gave a sarcastic pitch (written in verse) asking for more: “I’m demanding more branding of Loraxian stuff!” The pitch included suggestions such as Lorax-themed SUV’s, oil drills and McDonald’s meals.

Follow this link for a full transcript of Colbert’s ranting rhyme and click here to watch the video. What do you think?

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Five-time Grammy winner CeeLo Green has landed a book deal to publish his untitled memoir with Grand Central Publishing next year.

The memoir will “tell personal and candid story of how he found his voice as an artist and a showman.” Fellow musician Big Gipp and Rolling Stone reporter David Wild will also help on the book. Creative Trust, Inc agents Dan Raines and Meredith Smith negotiated the deal with Grand Central EIC of paperbacks Beth de Guzman.

Green had this statement in the release: “After reading my book, there will be no doubt that I am meant to be. You will enter into the supernatural, the surreal, and extraordinary. As CeeLo Green, a.k.a. ‘everybody’s brother,’ I will make you a believer. I talk about art imitating life; YOU discover CRAZY.”

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After exploding the Internets yesterday with news that she will publish her first novel for adults, Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling made a rare Twitter appearance to talk about the book.

She tweeted today: “As you may have heard, I have a new book out later this year. Very different to Harry, although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much.”

At the same time, the dramatic news generated a stream of posts from fake Harry Potter characters on Twitter. The Washington Post Style section rounded up these reactions on Storify. Read the tweets below (Via Julie Bosman)

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Yahoo News interviewed this GalleyCat editor about a crop of rushed books about basketball star Jeremy Lin. We singled out “Jeremy Lin: Advice from Sun Tzu on Basketball and the Art of War!!!“–a $1.99 “e-pamphlet” that basically repackages quotes from a public domain classic and addresses them to “modern day basketball warrior Jeremy Lin.”

We do not recommend buying this eBook, but we think it has created a new literary genre: “The possibilities for this mash-up genre are literally endless: ‘How Sherlock Holmes Solved the Amanda Knox Case!!!’ or ‘What Rick Santorum Can Learn from the Poetry of Walt Whitman!!!’”

What famous public domain books should be repackaged as advice books for celebrities? Share your suggestions (complete with triple exclamation points) at the #linerature hashtag, we’ll post our favorites.