The 50 Shades Cure for End-of-Summer Blues!

Have the end-of-summer blahs set in yet? It’s inevitable. After all, summers are usually Greyt, but this summer was even better because Fifty heated things up! Well, summer may be over but with so much Fifty everywhere, we don’t expect the discussion of all things #50Shades to cool off! So there’s no reason to feel blue…only Grey!

RECAPS & UPDATES

  • Limited Edition Hardback Set Available in UK – Order via AmazonUK (here). We’ve been told there are plans for the set to be released in the States soon, so we’ll keep you updated. You can also look forward to a chance to win an autographed set, as tweeted by the author. We’re also excited about her new website coming soon!
    E L James ‏@E_L_James
    @osieperez @50ShadesMontage I will do a competition when I launch my new website… not sure when that will be though – so keep an eye!

  • Fifty Shades of Grey: The Classical Album Released – For more information, go here.

  • E L James’s Husband Niall Leonard’s Promotes New Young Adult Book Crusher – He did interviews with Today show here and CNN here and wrote a “day in the life” style article for the Huffington Post here.

  • FSoG Inspired Fashion Week – A lot of black and leather was seen from designers Lubov and Max Azria! Check it out here.

  • Web Video BOOKD: 50 Shades of Grey Episode (@radical.media) – We were asked to be a part of this episode, but due to logistics and timing, it just didn’t work out. But Crissy from the fansite Laters, Baby! makes an appearance :) Watch it here.
  • FSoG Parody Song Developments! Chris Ward dropped in to let us know his FSoG parody song has been getting radio air time in Ireland! Congratulations, Chris! You can leave him a comment/review on his Amazon page by clicking here.
  • @50ShadesofGrey Parody Becomes Book – This very fun(ny) parody Twitter account has 80,000+ followers and is even retweeted by the author. For more information on the book, go here.
  • FSoG Illustrations – WOW! Beautiful illustrations from The Stir depicting “scenes” from the books here. We highly recommend taking a look at these, especially if you enjoy graphic novels. Let us know if you were ‘pulled’ right into the books by these like we were!

  • Emma Watson Asked About Ana Rumors – While promoting her new film, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, she admitted she still hasn’t read the books but thinks being considered for any role by fans is “flattering.” In a much more informal situation, she was on a plane with her Perks co-star Nina Dobrev (Elena on the Vampire Diaries and girlfriend of Ian Somerhalder), and the two did an on-air interview with Ryan Seacrest. He asked if Emma was going to play Anastasia Steele, as per the rumors of her being paired with Ryan Gosling as Christian Grey. Nina, helming the phone, relayed, “She [Emma] would be FAR more interested if he were playing Christian Grey.” Isn’t it nice to hear when stars are fans of another star? You can hear the full on-air interview here.

  • Ryan Gosling Asked About Christian Rumors – While promoting his new movie The Place Beyond the Pines at TIFF, @IamBenLyons for @extratv asked, “Any chance of Fifty Shades of Grey? Everybody wants to know.” Ryan’s response as he walked away was, “I haven’t… What is this book everyone’s talking about? Seems very popular.” You can watch the video here. That was not a direct answer from someone who is usually very quick-witted. Let’s respond appropriately, shall we?

From: 50 Shades Movie Fansite

Subject: Evasive Red Carpet Tactics

Date: September 16, 2012 5:17 PM EST

To: Ryan Gosling, Actor/Director and potential Mr. Grey

Sir,

Congratulations on your new film, The Place Beyond the Pines, which was picked up by Fifty Shades franchise distributors Focus Features during TIFF. We wish you much success with that project, as well as your upcoming directorial debut with How To Catch A Monster. However, we would be remiss if we didn’t point out that we felt your answer to Mr. Lyons’ question about Fifty Shades of Grey was a bit evasive, coy, and almost like you were hiding something (all ESSENTIAL QUALITIES of Christian Grey.)

Perhaps you’ve had to sign some paperwork on the topic, one of those NDAs? If so, well played, and we do understand about these things. Next time, just give us a wink or “oh-so-secret smile.”

50 Shades Move Fansite xoxo

  • Author to Appear on Katie! Yes, we’ve mentioned it before, but we are just so excited for this! Tune into Katie! on Monday, September 17th! The @katieshow airs M-F at 3pm ET on ABC.
  • Ms. James has begun her second US book tour! Dates and locations are listed at the top of our blog or you can find them here.

Summer might be over and the weather cooling, but #50Shades fans can count on topics related to the books and information about the movie to continue to be a sizzling-hot topic!

Interested In Roles, But Have They Read The Books?

A movie deal made literally on the heels of the Fifty Shades of Grey book series being published has generated a lot of buzz but has barely given already-busy actors/actresses a chance to keep up and read the story that will be coming to the big screen.

We’ve already talked about the first few actors (Ian Somerhalder, Chris Pine, William Levy) who openly spoke about it here. As we said previously, that was just the beginning. Since then, more actors/actresses haven’t been shy about tossing their grey ties and handcuffs into the ring when asked if they are interested in playing the characters of Christian and Ana.

Admittedly, he hasn’t read the books, but when Access Hollywood described the story and character of Christian Grey to Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood, Battleship) in an interview, he replied, “I was born to play that part.” (Source)

His costar in the upcoming movie Battleship, Taylor Kitsch (John Carter), was also asked about playing the role by Access Hollywood. He also admitted he has not read the books. However, it seems Fifty Shades of Grey is definitely on his radar because he stated he is asked about the books “almost daily.” (Source)

When Celebuzz asked Chris Hemsworth (Thor, SWATH, The Avengers) about the role of Christian, he announced, “I’m not going to say anything. I haven’t read the book!” He did say he had previously heard about the books, as he was present when his Avengers’ co-star Chris Evans (Captain America) was asked if he would like to play the role. (Source)

A fan asked Michael Welch (The Twilight Saga) via twitter if he was up for the role. He responded:

@carol_leomil: @MichaelWelchAct Do you would like to play Christian Grey in the movie? =)” Sure, it’s gonna be gosling though.

(Note: If we were E L James, we would take the opportunity to audition ALL of the actors interested in playing Christian because what a glorious and surreal opportunity it would be to hear several different smexy actors saying the words you wrote!!!)

Potential Ana actresses are speaking out too!

Nina Dobrev (The Vampire Diaries) was asked about the movie by @mtvnews, and she stated, “I haven’t read it.” She went on to say that she didn’t think she should star in it alongside her Vampire Diaries’ costar (and boyfriend) Ian Somerhalder concluding, “Either he should get it, or I should get it.” (Source) Sounds like she would be interested in playing Ana under the right circumstances though.

In an interview with Kristen Stewart (The RunawaysThe Twilight Saga, SWATH), Celebuzz’s Taryn Ryder asked about the FSoG movie roles going to Kristen and her Twilight Saga co-star (and rumored boyfriend) Robert Pattinson because of the story’s basis in Twilight fanfiction, only to be answered with “I haven’t read the book yet.” She goes on to say she wants to work with Rob again but it would need to be something ‘ridiculously ambitious’.” (Source)

And finally, Jennifer Love Hewitt (The Client List) has only just begun reading the books but declared to Access Hollywood, “I wanna be Anastasia so badly.” (Source)

So exactly who in Hollywood IS reading the books?

Eva Longoria tweeted after she met E L James backstage at The View. Hopefully this means that if she didn’t have the books already, Eva left that day with three new signed books in hand to read! Could they have discussed a part for her?

Eva Longoria: Look who I met in the green room of the View! E.L. James author of Shades of Grey! Who is reading this? Or read it? http://say.ly/Esb3gUF

Allison Williams (Girls) told Access Hollywood that she is reading the books. When asked if she would be up for playing the part of Anastasia Steele with all that it entailed, she waivered but didn’t seem to completely rule it out. (Source)

Wendy Williams, Ryan Seacrest, and Julianne Hough have also publically said they are reading the books. Jennifer Grey tweeted a few references specific to the books. Others are poised to read the books, including Fran Drescher, who has the books on her Kindle, and MTV’s Josh Horowitz (@joshuahorowitz), who tweeted he is in possession of the books for research purposes. You can read the complete article where he mentions FSoG here.

Have we heard from your favorite(s) yet? If not, let’s hope they have upcoming interviews with @AccessHollywood, @mtvnews, @ChristinaMTV and/or @Taryder with @CELEBUZZ because they are not shy about bringing up the topic!!! Thankfully!

It’s begun.

We say that almost like we were waiting for an invasion…and we were. “Fifty Shades of Grey” has certainly invaded mainstream, but what we’ve been waiting for is a response out of Hollywood.

Fans have no problem offering up who they can envision in the role of Christian (and Ana), but we’ve been excited for actors to step up to the plate and declare an interest in the role.

Ian Somerhalder (Lost, The Vampire Diaries) was the first! He did so on Ryan Seacrest‘s radio show, letting us know he was interested in portraying Christian in the upcoming movie. You can watch the interview here (and let us know how to interpret his body language as he spoke).

Ian SomerhalderNext, Access Hollywood asked Chris Pine (Star Trek) about the role. He replied, ”It’d be a hell of a choice for me, I think,” hopefully meaning he’d be up for it. You can read more here.

Chris Pine

William Levy, who has been participating on this season’s Dancing with the Stars on ABC, replied to his fans about the role on twitter.

William Levy

Who do you think will be next to voice an interest in playing Christian?