Maggie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Liv Tyler are all on the cover of USA Weekend to celebrate their roles in the upcoming super hero movies. You can read the article here and view some exclusive photos! Enjoy!

Why did you do SherryBaby?
It was an exceptional script. It was very real in the way that real human beings do things you wouldn’t imagine. I made it quite a long time ago and was drawn to the fact I didn’t know how I was going to do it, it seemed like a challenge. I’m so glad I did it, though, as it turned out to be about what I hope all my movies are about: someone whom it would be easy to judge but who the audience is invited to love despite how messed up she is.

Is it tedious to promote something you did so long ago?
I know getting involved in a teeny independent movie about someone like Sherry is going to take up many years of my life. It’s not like doing a move like World Trade Centre. I had to promote that film but with Sherry Baby I had to help get it sold, distributed and advertised. A lot is on my shoulders and I’m really the only one who can go out and sell it. I have to be part of that. It’s not like it’s come as a surprise.

You’ve said you had a stormy relationship with the director, why was that?
We shot the movie in five weeks which is a very short time and I was in every moment of every scene so I was working very hard. I felt I was Sherry at the time, I didn’t mean to but I started to. I worked long hours, fell asleep with my clothes on, woke up and went to work again. I was very stubborn and it was hard to have a civilised conversation with me because I was being Sherry. We also had a fundamental disagreement about who she was, I wouldn’t back down on my opinion. Sometimes an actress knows more about the character she’s playing than anyone else can know. I felt the only way that the movie would work would be if Sherry was someone who felt she was getting out of jail and going to be a great mother, which makes the obstacles she has to overcome all the more heartbreaking. Looking back though I must have been a fucking handful.

Read the rest of this entry »

From her award-winning turn as a shy self-harmer turned provocateur in Secretary to her recent role as a recovering junkie in SherryBaby, Maggie Gyllenhaal has long been the poster girl for disenchanted heroines, wowing the critics and attracting a legion of fans.

As she sits coyly twisting her hair in a plush penthouse, just blocks away from where she resides in downtown New York with her actor partner and new baby Ramona, the pretty actress freely admits that her extra-curricular credentials are in pretty good shape too.

But even as model for some of the world’s top fashion houses, sister to one of Hollywood’s hottest actors and with a slew of awards to her name, it is her role as Rachel Dawe’s in Batman: The Dark Knight that has whetted the appetite of fans and critics alike, paving the way for maintream superstardom.

If Gyllenhaal has any qualms about the transition, she shows little sign of it. Nor does she show any concern about picking up the reigns from one half of star-studded couple Tom-Kat. “I’m not walking into Katie’s [Holmes] performance,” she explains. “I’m thinking of it as an opportunity to play somebody who’s alive and smart. Chris [Nolan, the director] asked me to do this because he wanted me, not because he wants some generic lady in a dress.”

Continues the actress: “The part came up and something about it just appealled to me. It was just well written and fun. And the opportunity to work with director Christopher Nolan and an actor like Christian Bale was just to good to pass up.” Read the rest of this entry »

We now have the first official still of Maggie as Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight - she’s shown with The Joker played by Heath Ledger. View a larger version in the gallery. Thanks to Riikka for sending it in!

First photos of Maggie on the set of ‘The Dark Knight’ has appeared on the web! Thanks to Caladonia for sending me the link! View them here

Photos by Yunerz

UGO.com has posting this bit about Maggie on The Dark Knight:

Maggie Gyllenhall: As great as Batman Begins was, it had one weak link in Katie Holmes. She wasn’t necessarily bad as assistant DA Rachel Dawes, but held up against heavyweights like Christian Bale, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine, she didn’t quite measure up. Now, Nolan’s got a new girl for the part, and it’s the lovely Ms. Maggie Gyllenhaal. She’ll be playing the same Rachel Dawes character, but preferably much better than Katie Holmes did. Images of Ms. Dawes, in costume (and in the company of Aaron Eckhardt as District Attorney Harvey Dent) have already begun to surface, and while they don’t tell us anything about her performance, they do demonstrate that Maggie Gyllenhaal is still cute as hell.

Click the UGO.com link for more on the film. Thanks to Herman for sending this info in!

Off Topic: I’ll be taking off the news script that we use here [cutenews] and replacing it [with wordpress]. This will mean that I can have multiple people posting news - kinda like a news staff. Look forward to that soon!

Maggie is being mentioned on today’s edition (Friday, March 9th) of Dave’s Hollywood Minute. There’s a quick story about the new Batman film and her plans to take part in it. You can visit http://www.hollywoodminute.us/podcast to hear the show (or find it at the iTunes music store) if it’s not carried on a radio station in your area.

Movie sites around the web are saying that Maggie will be the new Rachel Dawes in the up coming Batman film, ‘The Dark Knight‘. This would be taking over the role from Katie Holmes who played Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins. Also starring in this film is Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine and Gery Oldman.

Nothing yet has been officially confirmed.