The Tudors News Site

A BOOKMAKER is taking bets on a Hollywood star from Bishop’s Stortford becoming the next Doctor Who – and the UK’S Herts and Essex Observer is backing him all the way!

James Frain’s odds have shortened from 40-1 to 20-1 amid internet speculation that he has been approached to become the next Time Lord.

Intriguingly, an addition to the 40-year-old dark and brooding actor’s Wikipedia page – made just after David Tennant’s shock decision to quit the hit BBC show – indicated the star, who stole the show in a 1970s nativity play at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Great Hadham Road, Bishop’s Stortford, had already accepted the part – but the entry has since been removed.

Former classmate and James’s first leading lady, Observer chief reporter Sinead Holland, said: “James was so clever he skipped a school year and was still the smartest kid in the form.

“In our last year at St Joseph’s we performed an alternative nativity called The Shepherd’s Story and James was the lead. I played his nagging wife and at one point I had to chase him around the stage, threatening to beat him with a shillelagh, a traditional Irish club. I’d like to think the Cybermen and Daleks would hold no fears for him after that.”

Mary Jackson, his A-level English teacher at Newport Free Grammar School, hoped a plum role and prime-time exposure in the UK would confirm the fame he has already secured in the United States.

She remembered the talented and artistic student, who was the eldest of eight children born to stockbroker dad Paul and teacher mum Geraldine, and has followed his career with interest.

The former Miss Muncie had just started teaching when she tutored James, who had been brought up in Stansted before the family moved briefly to Leeds and then back to Bishop’s Stortford. She said: “James was a very good student, very intelligent and hard-working.”

Mrs Jackson said James, who is now married to American dancer and writer Marta Cunningham, was greatly influenced by drama and English teacher Richard Kitchen and worked with him, researching, writing and performing a play about a Thaxted vicar.

He went on to study English and drama at the Univer-sity of East Anglia in Norwich before graduating from London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, where he was discovered by Sir Richard Attenborough, who cast him in the film Shadowlands in 1993.

He has since starred in movies such as Elizabeth, Hilary and Jackie and Where the Heart Is, where he played opposite Natalie Portman, and secured roles in high-profile TV series 24, The Tudors and Law and Order: Criminal Intent, as well as giving acclaimed stage performances – including most recently The Homecoming on Broadway.

Mrs Jackson was intrigued by the idea that he could be the next Doctor: “I think it would be great. Although he has had a lot of very good parts, he has not yet had such a big role over here. It would be lovely to see him do something so much in the public eye – and have all his hard work rewarded.”

Bookmaker Paddy Power has David Morrissey as 2-1 favourite for the role. An announcement is expected next year.

 The Tudors star Jonathan Rhys Meyers receives a royal welcome as he is given the Honorary Patronage award from the Trinity College Philosophical Society during a special ceremony on Sunday in Dublin, Ireland.

Society president Barry Devlin said, “We look for people who we feel represent the spirit and values embodied by former pioneering Irish people like Oscar Wilde. We are delighted to present this award to such a list of diverse and talented individuals such as Jonathan Rhys Myers.”

Tidbit: Republican presidential candidate John McCain was given this honor when he came to Trinity in 2006 to answer questions from students.

Source : Just Jared.com

First look at Joss Stone as Anne of Cleves

British Grammy-winning soul singer Joss Stone, 21, had hoped to play Jane Seymour in Showtime’s sexy royal series, The Tudors, which returns for a third season in spring 2009. But her touring schedule didn’t allow it, so instead she landed the role of Henry VIII’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.

“She wears frumpy clothes,” says Stone, from her home in Devon on a break from filming in Dublin. “None of the sexy English corsets. I’m a German weirdo. I had to have a bloody German accent and play the harpsichord.”

The upside: Henry, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, doesn’t find his German bride attractive. But Stone still will have to film a love scene during her three-episode appearance. “I just have to lie there. He’s trying to consummate the marriage. She’s a virgin and very afraid and she has no idea what to do. It’s all very uncomfortable and not working. He gets very angry.”

Acting uncomfortable was the easiest part, says Stone. “I’m not really an actress yet. At the end of the day I would love to go into acting and I am — but my first love is music.”

Source : USA Today.com

When David Alpay auditioned for The Tudors, he knew he’d have a chance to share the screen with a who’s who of British acting talent, in a story as English as fried food and damp curtains.

With recurring roles in Canadian shows like Slings And Arrows and Billable Hours as well as Atom Egoyan’s Ararat behind him, he nonetheless decided to take a bit of a risk.

“I never told them that I didn’t have an English accent. I kind of auditioned with an accent and just kinda got the part and bluffed my way through, I guess.”

Alpay ended up landing the role of Mark Smeaton, the court musician who became a favorite of King Henry VIII and then his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Smeaton was a rock star at the Tudor Court – the show even shows him having an affair with Anne’s brother George, a creative embroidery with no precedent in historical fact – but he met with an unfortunate end, implicated in an adulterous affair with Anne that conveniently suited both Henry’s burgeoning paranoia and his need to get rid of yet another wife who wasn’t producing an heir, though Smeaton was in all likelihood innocent.

“What’s really cool is that the show refuses to provide answers like that on the surface,” Alpay says, “and it’s not until the last two episodes of the season that we really find out what’s happening, and it’s heartbreaking, actually. Smeaton and Anne aren’t out to get the king or screw around and cause trouble. They’re just two people who, in a way, really love each other and care about each other, but the environment, the society that they live in, that has a really hard time with that. There’s a social friction that’s the kernel that grows into bigger problems later on. He’s a very innocent character who isn’t duplicitous, but seen through Henry’s eyes he seems that way. The history books though have kind of favoured Henry’s viewpoint.”

Source : Metro News.CA

Jonathan Rhys Meyers is planning to hang up his crown by quitting hit Hollywood show The Tudors.

Despite achieving enormous success with the show, the Cork born actor will finish out the current series but has already decided he will not return whether a new run is scheduled or not.

A source close to the star said: “Jonathan has decided he’s going to quit The Tudors. He’ll stay around to record the next season but he won’t be doing any more after that.

“He’s really enjoyed playing King Henry VIII and having the opportunity to work in Ireland again but he feels it’s time to go.” The Hollywood star will jet off to Paris this week to shoot his latest blockbuster From Paris With Love alongside John Travolta.

Our source told the Herald: “Jonathan is delighted because he’s landed the lead role. His character is much bigger than Travolta’s so it’s great news for him. It’s confirmation that he’s really made it, there’s no stopping him now.”

He will remain in Paris for the next 11 weeks while filming his latest project.

And with a $55m budget and a script that centres on an embassy employee and an American covert agent who become involved in a high-stakes mission, it’s sure to be a box office hit. To celebrate, the actor hit the town this weekend alongside his new The Tudors co-star Joss Stone.

They were spotted enjoying a farewell drink in members only bar, Residence, on Saturday.

Discreet

According to one onlooker: “They were there with another friend and seemed to be just out for a quiet drink. They were at a discreet corner table and appeared to be getting on very well and having a great laugh together.”

However, the superstars didn’t have much time to catch up, with Jonathan causing a stir with the ladies.

“People were walking past him on their way to the bathroom and then when they saw who it was they just stopped dead in their tracks.

“He was mobbed by girls all night and had a constant swarm of people coming up to talk to him.”

Singer Joss will make her debut in the period drama in the upcoming third series. She plays Anne of Cleves.

And while the celeb pair play lovers onscreen, it seems there will be no romance off camera, as Jonathan has spoken of his love for his long term girlfriend Reena Hammer.

Source : Herald.IE

Hollywood heartthrob Jonathan Rhys Meyers is set to get a royal welcome from Trinity College students in coming weeks.

The Philosophical Society is to award its Honorary Patronage to the Cork-born star of The Tudors at a special ceremony.

Previous personalities who have been given this honour include US presidential candidate Senator John McCain who came to Trinity in 2006 to answer questions from students.

Producers with the Showtime original series “The Tudors” say they will not accurately portray the hefty weight of Britain’s King Henry VIII.

“Tudors” Executive Producer Morgan O’Sullivan, whose series also airs on BBC2, said the decision not to have actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers wear a fat suit in his ongoing portrayal of the notoriously overweight 16th-century ruler was to maintain the star’s appeal, The Times of London reported Saturday.

“We still want him to be appealing,” O’Sullivan said of his series’ star.

“We don’t want to destroy his good looks. An exact portrayal of Henry is not a factor that we think is important.”

The Times said Henry VIII once reached a 54-inch waistline and at one point needed to be helped onto his horse with a hoisting device prior to his death in 1547.

While “Tudors” officials are clearly not intending on plumping up the 31-year-old actor for their historical series, they did tell the Times that Rhys Meyers has been aged for the ongoing second season of the series.

IT would have been the ideal role for Marlon Brando at the end of his career. Instead, the final days of the rotund Henry VIII are to be depicted in a fourth series of The Tudors by the svelte Jonathan Rhys Meyers — without the aid of a fat suit.

In his last years, the English monarch is thought to have swollen to well over 20 stone, with a waist measurement of 54in, and required a crane to hoist him on to his horse.

However, the makers of The Tudors, which has already been accused of taking too much artistic licence, want the Irish actor to keep his “matinée idol looks” right to the end of the saga.

“We still want him to be appealing,” said Morgan O’Sullivan, an executive producer. “We don’t want to destroy his good looks. An exact portrayal of Henry is not a factor that we think is important.

“We are not in the business of making Jonny look like Henry VIII. We have accepted that from day one. We have been criticised for not casting someone with red hair. But you either cast him exactly like Henry VIII or you choose to deal with it differently. We chose from the start to have him looking fit. So there will never be a fat suit. That would be unreal.”

Producers say they have aged Rhys Meyers, 31, “quite a bit” in the third series, but the Dublin-born actor  has made it clear himself he doesn’t intend to pig out to get into character. He has argued that actors “are not famous because they’re pug ugly”, and that there was no point in selling a historical drama “to a country like America” featuring “a big fat 250lb red-haired guy with a beard”.

The third series of The Tudors is currently shooting at Ardmore studios in Co Wicklow, and a fourth series is almost certain to be shot there next year. “We’d be fairly confident that it will be made,” said O’Sullivan. “We have to air season three before the next one is committed, but it has gained tremendous popularity globally. We are in over 70 territories and now have journalists visiting us here from all over the world, including Brazil and Colombia.”

Roy Bodner, a spokesman for Peace Arch Entertainment, the Canadian co-producers, said a commitment to a fourth series is expected from Showtime, the American cable channel, “at some point in the near future”.

The third series, which will wrap at Ardmore next month, will take the saga of Henry VIII up to his divorce from fourth wife Anne of Cleves, played by the singer Joss Stone. It will be broadcast next year.

The fourth series, which will be the last, features the monarch’s final two wives.

“We have started writing scripts for the next series anyway,” O’Sullivan said. “But there will be no more than four, because we are out of story value then.”

O’Sullivan and Michael Hirst, the writer, have had a number of offers to make other drama series after The Tudors ends. “This has been so successful globally that we will do others,” O’Sullivan said. “It has opened myriad doors. We have had approaches from loads of people to do other series, but I’ve no idea what we’ll choose.

“When we started this show, my ambition was for Michael Hirst to be the only writer, and for it to be of feature-film quality, to turn it into event television. I used to work with Mary Tyler Moore, and you had 10 writers on a series like this, but we have one. It is one person’s vision, and that’s easier.”

Apart from obesity, Henry VIII is thought to have suffered a variety of other ailments in the last years of his life, including boils, gout, an ulcerated leg and even a sexually transmitted disease. Given that Hirst has said The Tudors is just 85% accurate, some of these gory details may be avoided.

The idea of beefing up to get into character was made famous by Robert De Niro, who put on 60lb to play boxer Jake La Motta as a bloated loser in the latter half of Raging Bull. Subsequent examples included Charlize Theron who gained 30lb to play murderer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, and George Clooney who put on 35lb for Syriana.

Stars who faked the fat

Julia Roberts put on a fat suit in order to appear about 14st when she played Catherine Zeta Jones’ younger sister in America’s Sweethearts.

Eddie Murphy got into a giant latex suit to play Sherman Klump in The Nutty Professor.

Gwyneth Paltrow donned a 300lb fat suit to star in Shallow Hal.

Ray Winstone wore a fat suit to play Henry VIII in the 2003 TV mini-series.

Henry VII, England’s most famously fat monarch, is to be slimmed down so that he retains his sex appeal for a television audience.

The makers of The Tudors, being shown on BBC2, have said Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who plays Henry in the costume drama, will not be required to put on a fat suit to reflect the aged king’s swollen girth. Henry, who died in 1547, is thought to have grown to more than 20st, with a waist of 54in; at the end of his life he needed a hoist to lift him onto his horse.

The makers of the saga have already been accused of taking too much licence with history. Now they have decided that, in the planned fourth series, Henry will remain svelte in his old age.

“We still want him to be appealing,” said Morgan O’Sullivan, an executive producer.

“We don’t want to destroy his good looks. An exact portrayal of Henry is not a factor that we think is important.

“We are not in the business of making Johnny look like Henry VIII. We have accepted that from day one. We have been criticised for not casting someone with red hair. But you either cast him exactly like Henry VIII, or you choose to deal with it differently.

“We chose from the start to have him looking fit. So there will never be a fat suit. That would be unreal.”

Producers say they have aged Rhys Meyers, 31, “quite a bit” in the series, but he has made it clear that, as well as shunning the fat suit, he will not be stuffing himself with food to bulk up. Rhys Meyers has argued that actors “are not famous because they’re plug-ugly”.

The second series of The Tudors, now halfway through, is attracting about 2m viewers a week. The third is being filmed at Ardmore Studios, in Co Wicklow, Ireland. It takes the saga up to Henry’s divorce from Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife, played by Joss Stone, the singer.

Critics have noted that the makers of the series, which include Working Title, have been happy to distort history for dramatic effect.

Thomas Wolsey, Henry’s lord chancellor and the Archbishop of York, committed suicide in the series. In fact, he fell ill and died in Leicester in 1530 on his way to London to face treason charges. Henry VIII’s sister is called Princess Margaret in the series, but her character is based on the king’s other sister, Mary. This was done so viewers would not confuse her with Henry’s daughter Mary.