Names and faces

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

• The first trailer for the Fifty Shades of Grey movie will be released this week and the original Christian Grey, Charlie Hunnam, said he can't wait for the finished product. Speaking Sunday at a Fox event in Southern California as part of the Television Critics Association press tour, the 34-year-old actor said he still believes in the film, although he's no longer a part of it. "I'm just really excited to see it. I was just really, really invested and wanted to work with [director] Sam [Taylor-Johnson] and play that character. I'm really, really curious." Hunnam said it's not fair to dismiss author E.L. James' writing as "mommy porn." "I think people really do that book a disservice when they reduce it to that type of talk," he said. "What [E.L. James] actually created is a really sophisticated dynamic and presented it in a package which was accessible to people who normally would be terrified of that subject. ... Actually what she did was pretty brilliant." The Sons of Anarchy actor dropped out of the big-screen adaptation one month after it was announced that he had landed the role of the billionaire Grey, a sexual "dominant" with major baggage who falls for an innocent college coed (played by Dakota Johnson). Universal Pictures and Focus Features said Hunnam's preparation time for the movie was limited by his TV schedule. He was replaced shortly after by actor Jamie Dornan. Fifty Shades is scheduled to open on Valentine's Day in 2015.

• Court documents show Philip Seymour Hoffman rejected his accountant's suggestion that he set aside money for his three children because he didn't want them to be "trust fund" children. The New York Post reported that the children's court-appointed lawyer recently interviewed the late actor's accountant, David Friedman. In a Friday filing in Manhattan Surrogate Court, Friedman recalled conversations with Hoffman where the topic of a trust for his children was raised. He said Hoffman wanted his estimated $35 million fortune to go to his longtime partner and the children's mother, Mimi O'Donnell. According to the filing, Friedman said Hoffman treated O'Donnell "in the same manner as if she were a spouse." The court-appointed attorney said the actor's will should be approved by the court because there isn't anything suspicious about it.

A Section on 07/22/2014