UltimateJeffGoldblum.com · © 2007-2009 · April 2009

Just Dropping In...

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:12:00 +0000

WOW! I haven't been here in... a year!

I will only be using this website as apart of my portfolio. You CAN visit my other fansite dedicated to 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin - STEVEAUSTINWEB.com !!!

You can reach me at @joycejefferson or on my fansite Twitter @steveaustinweb

Thanks for all of the support!!! :)

Taking a Break!!!

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:53:00 +0000

Hey guys,

I'm taking an even bigger break from the website. Things in college are starting to take up more of my time (esp. in my journalism and web design classes). And also, I want to focus more on personal things (online and in life). I want to start building on my portfolio and everything.

Don't worry! I still love Jeff as an actor and I still support him, and if anything BIG comes up, I'll be sure to post it here.

If you want, you guys can follow me on my blog at:

jsharmaine.blogspot.com (those of you that have jsharmaineonline.blogspot.com, PLEASE be sure to update your bookmarks!)

or on my personal Twitter at: twitter.com/jsharmaine!

Thanks for all of your support!!!

Notice!

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:43:00 +0000

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates...

I may not be able to update as much as I want to due to me having school and other issues. This website may be deserted for a while, and I'll update when it's possible for me to do so. BUT I'm still here!!!

Meanwhile, Michelle over at JeffGoldblumOnline.net is doing a fine job (shameless affiliate plug! lol)!

Keep visiting and thanks!!!

Video: Jeff on David Letterman - 04/20/09

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:41:00 +0000

Just in case you missed it:

Jeff Goldblum Lends Support in Creating the World's Longest Handbag

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:37:00 +0000

NEW YORK, April 28
Celeb-Handbag-Benefit
Source: EarthTimes.org

In honor of National Zipper Day on April 29, world-renowned fashion icons, stars of the Big Screen and Little Screen and New York's Great White Way are joining forces with Green Alley LLC -- creator of the zpr bag -- and the students of Manhattan's New Design High School to set the record for the World's Longest Handbag. Proceeds from the making of the bag serve a dual purpose: (1) to send at least one deserving student to Fashion Camp NYC this summer and (2) to raise funds for New Design High School's fashion and design programs, helping to educate and support tomorrow's top artists and designers.

The handbag will be created using hundreds of vivid, multicolored "zpstrips" individually signed and decorated by the students and celebrities from the worlds of fashion, film, television and stage. Lending their support (and autographs) to the cause are America's top-selling fashion icons; acclaimed actors Ted Danson, Jeff Goldblum, Anne Dudek; Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag of MTV's "The Hills"; the cast of Broadway's new hit play "Reasons to be Pretty"; designers Wells Butler (primp) and Mary Fanaro (OmniPeace) and countless other cultural figures of all stripes.

"Zpr bags are all about creativity, personalization and individuality," said Kat Costello, co-founder of Green Alley, LLC and co-creator (along with her husband, Chris) of the zpr bag. "By enlisting support from some of the most gifted and successful artists of our time in creating the World's Longest Handbag, zpr bag is able to pay that creativity forward, ensuring that future design stars of tomorrow are able to shine today."

Zpr bag, the summer's hottest fashion accessory, will be featured in the July edition of Teen Vogue. The customizable nylon bags made from interchangeable zpstrips. Individual strips can be added or removed, so girls can have the colors they want and the size of the bag they want -- and everyone can have the affordability of getting nine different bags for the price of one.

Each zpr bag comes with two end pieces, three middle strips and an adjustable shoulder strap that can be removed to change the purse into a clutch. Additional bright-colored zpstrips can be purchased, exponentially increasing the design possibilities.

The World's Longest Handbag event will take place between 3:00 - 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29 (National Zipper Day) on the rooftop of the New Design High School (350 Grand Street between Ludlow and Essex Streets in Manhattan's Lower East Side). The event is open to the public.

Zpr bags retail for $19.99 - $29.99. In 2008, Green Alley partnered with Harvest Direct, which distributes via television and retail outlets such as Target, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Walgreens. The bags can be purchased online at www.zprbag.com.

For more information about zpr bag or the World's Longest Handbag event, please visit zprbag.com, theworldslongesthandbag.blogspot.com.

Jeff Goldblum on Law & Order: CI: The Verdict?

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:35:00 +0000

Jeff Goldblum made his debut on Law & Order: Criminal Intent last night as Det. Zack Nichols, new partner of Wheeler (Julianne Nicholson). He rolled up to the crime scene in an eclectic Brooklyn neighborhood carrying goods from the three pit-stops he made on the one-block walk from his car: grits with ham from a soul food restaurant, a bagel from a kosher deli, and a tantric charm from a new age store. I guess when you've been on an unspecified leave for seven years, you're used to being on your own schedule.

We found out that Nichols had been partnered with the Captain in anti-crime before he checked out. He's "a brilliant cop, very perceptive" and "not crazy exactly," according to Ross. Both of his parents were shrinks, which could explain his ability to screw with suspects. (Not sure what explains his ability to dance.) He dresses more casually than you'd expect. I'm already a fan of his hoodie (pictured). I hope it returns. He can play the piano. He has a good sense of humor. (After a girl suggested that real estate developers killed her bandmate to make their artist commune think the neighborhood was unsafe he asked Wheeler if they canvased the scene for Trump's hair.) And, he's so laidback that he often doesn't even appear to be moving when he's walking. In short, he's exactly what you thought you were getting from the casting of Jeff Goldblum. We look forward to catching his episodes in a holiday marathon in the years to come. I just hope that Wheeler gets to do more than she did last night. I'm assuming she's not always that irrelevant? She was just feeling her new partner out, which is why she did nothing?

Eclipse Magazine: Jeff Goldblum Interview

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:27:00 +0000

HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: Jeff Goldblum Talks Law & Order: Criminal Intent’s New Detective and More!
April 29th, 2009 · Posted by: Sheldon A. Wiebe in Hollywood Insider
Source: Eclipse Magazine
Thanks Anke!

Yesterday, Jeff Goldblum took a half-hour out of his busy shooting day to talk with a number of bloggers/journalists about his role as Detective Zach Nichols on the new season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent [USA, Sundays, 9/8C]. Goldblum, it turns out, is as intelligent and intuitive as his character.

Also taking part in the Q&Q session were: Jamie Ruby [Media Blvd], Jamie Steinberg [Starry Constellation], Julie Kissane [popculturemadness.com], Christine Nyholm [Examiner], Joshua Fulghum [totallyher.com], Troy Rogers [thedeadbolt.com], and Zach Oat [televisionwithoutpity.com].

J. Ruby: I actually am not that far from Pittsburgh myself so I’m curious, since I’m interested in it, too, how did you get started in acting?

J. Goldblum: Hello to you from almost Pittsburgh. I always wanted to do it; my parents took us to see some children’s theater I remember, early on at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. Even though I was very little I got kind of the bug. I was very excited being around theater and wondered what are those actors doing backstage and I was very excited about it.

And then there’s this thing in Pittsburgh, I think it’s still going on. It’s at Chatham, Music Day Camp it’s called; in the summers for six weeks between fifth and sixth grades and another year, maybe the year before that, too, during the summers I had the most magical time ever going to this thing and going from softball to arts and crafts and piano. I already had started playing piano then to this drama course. At the end of this drama course actually I took part in this recital and my father, my parents had already wisely said if you find something you love to do that might be a key to your vocation. After this show they cast me as this kind of lead in this funny little show and after that I had such an exhilarating time of it I remember, they were there. They said, “How did you like that?” I was like yes, that was really something and I kept it secret to myself just how much I loved it, but I think from that time on around fifth grade I thought to myself that’s what I want to do.

Then between ninth and tenth and tenth and eleventh grades I went to Carnegie Mellon University and they had six-week sessions for people and I remember looking through the catalog with my parents. They said, “What do you want to do?” There was art and I had painted and taken some art classes and had some talent in that. And I was playing piano. They said, “What do you want to do, this music program here? Do you want to do the art program?” I was like, “What if I did the one for actors?” It had kind of been a secret.

And so I did that, fell wildly more in love, several steps down the road in my soul and heart and blood and system toward being obsessed with and convinced and passionate about being an actor. That kind of stuck and then right after high school went to New York when I was still 17, just before I turned 18 and joined the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sandy Meisner, the great acting teacher, where he was still teaching. That’s how it all started. I started to do plays and movies and like that.

J. Steinberg: You’re known for your dramatic roles and also for your dry sense of humor. I was wondering why you chose to be on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Do you at least get to express some of your sense of humor while you’re doing the show?

J. Goldblum: Yes, such as it is. Maybe I’m funny sometimes, maybe not so funny other times, but yes. They actually write, Dick Wolf has been fantastic, kind, cordial and brilliant, I think. And they have a brilliant staff of writers and producers and they have intendingly built a part that is suited for some of the things that I like to do and can do. That’s what they’ve tried to do and after seeing the first episode that was aired I think there’s some humor in there. Along with the solving the crime and the very passionate part of this character and serious part of the character, I think there’s some humor in it; I’m enjoying some of the funny parts of it.

S. Wiebe: Hello, Jeff, I just want to say first I’ve been following your career since Tenspeed and Brown Shoe and enjoyed practically everything you’ve ever done. Detective Nichols seems to work from an observational point of view, where he’s working on motivations more than just the facts. So he’s kind of a bit intuitive. How would you describe your character if you were actually Nichols describing the character?

J. Goldblum: I’ll take a crack at it. Yes, I think you’re right. I am an intuitive fellow. Of course people know that both my parents were shrinks so I was sort of raised in an atmosphere where there was that interest in the human mechanism and the human psyche and what makes people tick. And yes, I think I’m particularly creative and adventurous and improvisational and spontaneous in my inner impulses and patterns and deeply curious and appetized in the unfathomably mysterious and delicious phenomena that is the human being and who we really are.

And why certainly people go off the rails and commit murder here in New York City, that interests me particularly, and oftentimes I find it’s a mistake of identity and having their ego built around mistakenly and their sense of identity built around some aspect of form, if you will, in their lives, either their careers or their reputations or their bank accounts. That mistake gets them into trouble and they wind up doing risky and awful things in order to pursue that mistaken notion and defend it and help that survive. It’s a bad, but not uncommon disease of the psyche that I find results in murder sometimes. I’m a humble student of that whole subject.

J. Kissane: You actually touched on this before, that you are a skilled piano player. Were you nervous when you were being filmed during a scene where you got to play the piano in an episode?

J. Goldblum: I don’t know how skilled I am, but I did take lessons. Our parents gave us music lessons early on in Pittsburgh and I took to it and loved it. I kind of guess it’s a hobby of mine. I’ve always played piano … I decided on being an actor, I played the ragged cocktail lounges here and there, a couple of jobs while I was still in high school in Pittsburgh and then have always had a piano where I am, where I live and now where I work, too. I just love to play all the time. For the last several years I’ve had a jazz band called the Mildred Spitzer Orchestra in Los Angeles and when I’m off work we book ourselves into places and play gigs around town.

Then, yes, they knew about it a little bit and worked it into the character so my character, Detective Nichols, is able to play a bit and in these couple episodes, one that you saw already, maybe that first episode, and there’s another one where I play. No, I’m not particularly nervous. I get excited and I got excited about it, but I always was sort of thrilled to play. Even when I play gigs these days I have no career aspirations or no fear of criticism. I really do it because I love to do it. Whenever I do it I love to do it, so it was particularly enjoyable for me having it be part of a scene or two.

C. Nyholm: Touching back on expansion of your first question I’m just wondering what you advise young actors today if they wanted to get into the field of acting. How would you start and where would you go?

J. Goldblum: Very good question, advice to, you know I teach, for the last, I’m a humble student of acting myself and part of that studentship is teaching, in fact, I feel like I learn a lot from it. I just love doing it; I could teach every day. I haven’t done it for a while because I’ve been working so often, but one of the things I feel like is relevant and practical to tell my students sometimes, and anybody interested in getting into it, is to, well I like what Stanislavsky said. He said, “Love the art in yourself; not yourself in art.”

So in fact you can begin to discover and investigate whether you are an actor or not, whether you’re in my view, qualified for a life in this profession or in this endeavor by checking yourself out and acting every day, getting plays and scripts and getting together with people and divvying up the parts and acting in one way or another, or writing things. But an actor wants to get up every day and they can’t think of anything particularly more fun to do than getting into a made-up situation and living it out as if it’s real. And having people watch it perhaps and thereby telling those people a story, by acting out these characters in a story. That’s what actors want to do; they don’t necessarily want to be famous or rich or anything else. It’s a very bad gamble if that’s what you’re after. But if your heart is wildly in it so that you can’t think of anything else that could possibly make you happy or happier than getting up every day and acting, playing this crazy game that you make something up and playing pretending as if that’s true; if that’s for you you should start to do it.

And it’s not rocket science. There are a lot of books about it. I had a great teacher, Sandy Meisner, and there’s a book that he wrote kind of chronicling a class that he, his two-year program takes you through. And you can learn many things, but it’s really doing it. If you have a feeling to do it that’s what you might do. And that’s what you start to do. If you make acting a part of your daily life, first of all, that’s a satisfying end in itself. But you might find that you start to get good at it and opportunities may come. If you’re of that sort of temperament you may investigate how to study formally and pursue the profession if that’s of your temperament and all of that.

But I’d say start to act; be a fan. See if you’re a person who loves, is a fan of and a lover of it, a devotee of literature, of material and you say, “I’ve got to do that.” Then start to do it anywhere you can that’s what I would say.

J. Fulghum: It’s an honor to speak with you today.

J. Goldblum: It’s a greater honor for me. That’s a line from a movie; do you know what movie that’s from?

J. Fulghum: Not right off hand.

J. Goldblum: A Woody Allen movie, Love and Death. “It’s a greater honor for me. No, it’s a greater honor for me. No, you must be Don Francisco’s sister.” Yes, that’s from Love and Death. But in fact it’s a greater honor for me.

J. Fulghum: Throughout your career you’ve starred in movies that feature incredible and even monstrous creatures like Jurassic Park and Incident at Loch Ness. Do you have any interest in cryptozoology, which is the study of hidden animals?

J. Goldblum: Not particularly. I don’t have much of an interest in Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster or dinosaurs that actually might be running around, no. I’ve never heard anything credible that would make me think that any of that stuff actually exists. Even though I love playing in those stories including the dinosaurs, no, in real life I’m not particularly interested in Big Foot or the Loch Ness monster.

T. Rogers: How would the Jeff Goldblum of 20 years ago approach Zach Nichols?

J. Goldblum: Jeff Goldblum 20 years ago might have been, but I was playing that Tenspeed and Brownshoe so I would have been the actor involved perhaps, this is hopefully I wouldn’t have any business with doing anything wrong that would have gotten me involved in a guy who’s investigating murders. But I’ve always been involved with crime stories and if I had been, for instance 20 years ago not inconceivably involved in a part where I might have been playing a detective like this I would have been very interested to talk to Zach Nichols, who’s ostensibly a real and a uniquely brilliant detective, for research purposes.

Here on our set, Criminal Intent we’ve got a guy like that, so the current Jeff Goldblum can talk to this fellow Mike Struck who’s a brilliant real-life detective. I love hearing all his stories and he’s on the set when we do our stories here and he tells us what’s real and if he were playing the part and he were in the actual situation what he’d be thinking, what he’d be doing, how he’d be doing it, and that’s thrilling and fascinating to me. So that’s how I can imagine Jeff Goldblum of yore talking to Zach Nichols if he were real.

Z. Oat: I’m a big fan of Raines and I don’t know if this has been touched on already, but were you disappointed when the show got cancelled and did that influence you at all in considering this part on Law & Order?

J. Goldblum: Let’s see, I have a very, at this point maybe I have a philosophical approach that allows me here and there to be satisfied with whatever happens, believe it or not. Yes, I have my ups and downs and I can be disappointed in one thing or another, but generally speaking whatever happens I will mostly, and you can, it’s not strange to think to look at my life and go, “You’re a lucky guy,” and to mostly feel incredibly grateful. So even during a period when for instance Raines came and Raines went, I just felt incredibly grateful. If they had told me in fact that Raines would have been a six, seven-part miniseries I probably would have signed up and been very happy to do it like that too. I would have been very happy. But I’m always interested in the unexpected and know that things, especially in show business, but in life generally, are inevitably fleeting to one extent. It may be short, it may be long, but there’s no such thing as long. I think all of life is a fleeting proposition, so I’m sort of happy with whatever comes and goes in fact. And I think in loss and in the goings is sometimes the greatest opportunity for expansion.

Anyway, in another way it did give me, it whet my appetite for more cop parts, it’s true, and even before I did Raines I did this … show called The Pillow Man, where I played a detective, a homicide detective in fact. And I had a great time doing that. It was this Mike McDonough play and I was in it with Billy Crudup and Zeljko Ivanek and we had a great time for six months at the Booth Theater in New York. After that I was still very appetized when Raines came along, and after Raines, to do this, and there was sort of some kind of appetizing continuum for me in those things, that’s right.

J. Ruby: So out of all the roles you’ve played, because there’s been a lot, what’s been your favorite and why?

J. Goldblum: My favorite and why. Maybe it’s because I’m trying to get better and I feel like I am, but I currently am pretty in love with this part that I’m doing now. Then I’ve got a couple of, I like the parts at the stage when they’re at the stage of development, so I’m doing a couple more movies right after this, this summer, one called The Baster with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman, and I’m at the stage where I’m rehearsing it and trying to figure out who the character is and what the part is, and I kind of love that. And then I’m doing this movie with Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton and Rachel McAdams called Morning Glory right after that, and I’m a bit in love with that. I think you have to be. That’s part of the criteria and qualification for taking a part. It has to be a passion and something you’re in love with.

But besides that, having said all that, I did love very much Adam Resurrected that I did this last year with Paul Schrader directing that Willem Dafoe was in and it was a wonderful movie and experience for me. I loved doing that movie, Pittsburgh that I think you can still get on NetFlix, a very handcrafted affair that I sort of cooked up over several years. Besides that, holy cats, many things that I could think of, but those are a few that come to mind.

Jeff Goldblum Sighting!

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:04:00 +0000

Source: NY Mag!

Meanwhile Jeff Goldblum collected cell-phone numbers from some svelte ladies during his early-morning trip to Equinox on West 17th.

Jeff Goldblum perks up a fading "Law & Order: Criminal Intent"

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:34:00 +0000

Jeff Goldblum perks up a fading "Law & Order: Criminal Intent"
By Robert P. Laurence
Posted on Thu, Apr 23rd, 2009
Source: SanDiego.com San Diego Television

I always think of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" as "that other 'Law & Order.'"

First came "Law & Order," the original, the "Dragnet"-like cops-and-prosecutors procedural with the eternally revolving cast. Nineteen seasons on NBC (second only to "Gunsmoke" among all TV drama series) and no end in sight. Simple secrets of success: consistently great writing, New York scenery, New York actors. All that, and ripped-from-the-headlines plots that keep you guessing until the jury delivers its verdict: Guilty? Not guilty?

Next came "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," also on NBC, often engrossing, but the one I think of as "child-molesting serial killer of the week."

"Criminal Intent," now in its eighth season, was originally supposed to follow a crime from the criminal's point of view, watching nervously as the cops inexorably close in, but quickly turned its cameras in the direction of the charismatic Vincent D'Onofrio as Det. Robert Goren, who solves cases by worming his way into the often-labyrinthian head of the criminal. Alone among the "L.&O." series, "C.I." became a star vehicle, often interesting but a touch less compelling than its batterymates, its scripts not quite as challenging.

"C.I." moved from NBC to cable's USA channel (both belong to Universal Media) in 2007, and for the last few years D'Onofrio has only starred every other week, alternating with Christ Noth, once more playing Mike Logan, the detective he played in the original "L&O." (You really need a program, or at least a chart, to keep up.)

Noth departed last year, taking Logan with him, and now Jeff Goldblum, tall and rangy master of the mocking, ironic grin and sidelong glance, enters as Det. Zach Nichols. Nichols used to work here seven years ago, explains boss detective Danny Ross (Eric Bogosian), and now he's back. So much for back-story, for the time being. ("L.&O.:C.I." introduces Goldblum as Zach Nichols at 9 p.m. Sunday, April 26, on USA.)

D'Onofrio, seen in last week's season opener, doesn't look good. The horizontal growth that fans have noticed in recent years continues disturbingly apace, and those pregnant pauses in his dialogue have evolved beyond dramatic technique into too-obvious mannerism. In some scenes, I wondered if the character was searching for the right word, or if the actor had forgotten his lines. It's long been said that you can watch actors age in their old movies and reruns, and it's alarmingly true in the case of D'Onofrio. Thanks to his increasing weight, he seems to have aged much more than seven or eight years since filming the early episodes now in reruns.

Nichols makes his first appearance Sunday at a crime scene in one of the nether regions of Brooklyn, where a young musician has just been stabbed to death. Like much of New York, it's a place in transition. Graffiti still crawls over the walls like neon-bright ivy, but colonies of young, white musicians living in lofts signal a discomfiting demographic evolution in progress. "You've got worlds in collision here," Ross observes. "Orthodox Jews, urban blacks, punk rock stars of the 21st century. Not a lot of love."

Enter the chipper Nichols, bearing takeout bagels, grits with ham, and a tantric charm, all bought in a single block. He sees the bright side of the neigborhood's recent history.

He is taking over where Logan left off as lead partner to Det. Megan Wheeler, played still by Julianne Nicholson. (Dick Wolf, executive producer of all the "L.&O." series, seems to have an aversion to promoting his female second-banana cops and lawyers into the top jobs. Diane Wiest played the role of District Attorney Nora Lewin in "L.&O." for a couple of seasons early in the century, but that was a notable exception.)

As played by Goldblum, Nichols is a cerebral sort of cop, often lost in thought, not overly communicative. Sort of a thin Nero Wolfe, but chipper. When a second death occurs in Sunday's episode, Ross wonders if it was meant to cover up evidence from the first.

"No," says Nichols, allowing doubt to creep into his tone.

"Then what?" asks Ross.

"I don't know," answers Nichols, plainly rolling theories around in his head.

Goldblum has brought welcome new energy and a fresh outlook to a series that's been faltering of late, but the dialogue is still flabby in comparison to Wolf's two other series, the solutions to the mystery more obvious. When Nichols declares that one of his suspects is indeed "a killer," we're asked to accept his conclusion simply on faith in his intuition as a sleuth. At that early point in the hour, the evidence just isn't there

"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" is still "that other 'Law & Order,'" an interesting, moderately entertaining cop show, but short of the high standards of the other two in the franchise.

Video: Jeff on the Rachael Ray Show (04/21/09)

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:09:00 +0000

Jeff Goldblum Sings for His Supper

Backstage: How Jeff Goldblum Annoys His Friends

Video: Jeff Thinks He Looks Like an Old Lady!

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:18:00 +0000

Jeff has admitted (on Letterman) that he cares a lot about how he looks. He compared his glasses to the glasses of Jessica Lange in Grey Gardens.

Jeff Goldblum Works Hard In ‘Adam Resurrected’ Role

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:59:00 +0000

Jeff Goldblum Works Hard In ‘Adam Resurrected’ Role
April 21st, 2009
Source: ThaIndian.com

Jeff Goldblum got the script for “Adam Resurrected” a year before the filming of the movie began so that he could find time to research the role. He plays an entertainer who survives the Holocaust by agreeing to play the role of the commandant’s dog, and faces insanity in his new role.

Goldblum says he used every bit of the year to do his research, “I immersed myself in it the whole time … to try to get my arms around what the shape of this character was, who he could be.”

He listened to the stories of other Holocaust survivors and also went to a Purim party with some of them. He went to Berlin and Israel to see where his character might have lived and also visited two concentration caps. He took violin lessons and aced some magic tricks. He spent time with a German Shepherd dog that also appears in the movie until he and the dog being to form a bond.

He met with the “dog whisperer” Cesar Milan and met the creator of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. In addition he saw over 20 films and listened to audio commentaries to understand his director Paul Schrader better.

About the character he plays, Goldblum said, “My character is paradoxical and contradictory. He’s surprising. He’s got madness in him, but also a real reservoir of health, wide open spaces and deep love for his family as a resource.” The film traces the story of

Adam Stein who is considered the funniest man in Berlin before the war. He is a Jew and loses his job and then is taken to a concentration camp with his wife and daughter. Then a commandant recognize him and cuts a deal with him: if Adam becomes his dog an makes him laugh, he will be spared from killing. But Adam must also play the violin to calm down those taken to be killed, and among the prisoners he serenades are his wife and daughter. He later ends up in an insane asylum after the war.

Video: Jeff's Rope Trick From Letterman (4/20)

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:55:00 +0000

TV Reminder TONIGHT!

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:02:00 +0000

Jeff on David Letterman @ 11:35 PM+EST tonight!

"AR" in New Jersey!!!

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:54:00 +0000

Adam Resurrected will be showing on Wednesday, Apr 22 at 7:45 PM & 10:15 PM at Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly, NJ!!! So if you live in this area, go by and see the movie! If you see it, please send UJG.com a review to: jeffgoldblumonline@yahoo.com!!!(all credit given!)

Jeff Goldblum Immerses Himself In 'Adam Resurrected' Role

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:59:00 +0000

Jeff Goldblum Immerses Himself In 'Adam Resurrected' Role: SPILLING THE BEANS WITH ... JEFF GOLDBLUM
April 19, 2009
By Susan Dunne, The Hartford Courant, Conn.
Source: CaliforniaChronicle.com

Apr. 19--Jeff Goldblum was given the script for "Adam Resurrected" a full year before filming began, so he had plenty of time to research his role: an entertainer who survives the Holocaust by agreeing to play the part of the commandant's dog, a degradation that drives him insane.

Goldblum seemed to put every minute of that year to good use.

"I immersed myself in it the whole time ... to try to get my arms around what the shape of this character was, who he could be," he says.

He listened to the stories of Holocaust survivors and attended a Purim party with some of them. He traveled the world, especially Berlin and Israel, visiting the places his character might have spent part of his life. He visited two concentration camps. He took violin lessons and learned to do magic tricks. He spent time with a German shepherd who appears in the film until he and the dog formed a bond. He met with "dog whisperer" Cesar Millan. He consulted with the creator of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

Then he asked his director, Paul Schrader, to suggest movies he might need to see to understand Schrader's attitudes better. Schrader named 20, and Goldblum saw them all -- even listening to the audio commentaries.

"I basically took his film course," Goldblum says.

His meticulous approach shows. Goldblum gives an exceptional performance in "Adam Resurrected," Schrader's adaptation of the book by Israeli novelist Yoram Kaniuk.

The movie will have a one-time-only screening Monday night in West Hartford. The event, a Connecticut premiere, is a fundraiser for next year's Hartford Jewish Film Festival.

"My character is paradoxical and contradictory. He's surprising," Goldblum says. "He's got madness in him, but also a real reservoir of health, wide open spaces and deep love for his family as a resource."

The movie tells the story of Adam Stein, who before the war was considered the funniest man in Berlin. He had a wife and family. He loses his job because he's a Jew, and then he and his family are shipped off to a camp. The commandant recognizes the great entertainer and makes him a deal: Adam must be his dog and make him laugh, and he will be spared. He also must play his violin to soothe other prisoners as they are marched off to the crematory. Among those he serenades are his wife and daughter.

Most of the story takes place in the desert insane asylum where Adam landed after the war. All the other patients, except one, are death camp survivors. The exception is a small boy who thinks he is a dog.

"I was moved by it. It struck me as unique in its voice and tone. It was like nothing I'd ever seen or read before," Goldblum says. "It had intelligence and humor and a balance of darkness and lightness.

"It's not unrelated entirely to other material, such as 'The Tin Drum,' 'Catch-22' or 'Slaughterhouse 5,' which look back on the war in a dark and irreverent way."

Goldblum says Schrader told him audiences usually expect two things from Holocaust-themed films: that they're taken from real events, and that they're reverential in some way.

"This was neither of those things," Goldblum says. "Yoram Kaniuk has a very original, smart, snarky sense of wicked humor."

Kaniuk's book was controversial in Israel when first published. But after the book got rave reviews in other countries, Israel came around to respecting Kaniuk's vision.

The book seems, at first glance, unfilmable. Almost entirely an internal monologue of Adam's, it vividly depicts the ravings of an unstable mind:

"Let's add up the score between Adam Stein and the monster: 0 to 0. Nothing has happened. He bit me, I barked at him. Stalemate. So you're up, Adam, on your feet. Now get dressed. What should you wear? Gray pants. A knitted brown shirt a la Von Hamdung -- Heil, mein Fuhrer! Moccasins, a sweater. Brush your hair, Jenny isn't around. Long live the absence of my Jenny. Tonight I must ... no doubt about that ... why didn't you take ... ah, it's a complicated business. She'll want to get married, and marriage to a corpse poses some sticky problems. Like: who's going to pay for the tombstone? Should it be in the shape of a rubber condom or a dog? I'm coming, Mr. Monster."

Screenwriter Noah Stollman, in an e-mail interview, said he tried hard to keep Kaniuk's style while condensing the story for film adaptation.

"Kaniuk's prose, and his poetic qualities of his writing, were my inspiration in writing this script," Stollman wrote. "I really wanted him to have a good experience in having his book 'usurped' for the film."

Goldblum read the script before reading the book and was impressed with Stollman's work.

"He caught the spirit of the book and made it artful and movie-like," Goldblum says.

One theme presented in the movie is that irrationality gives life its meaning. As Adam says, "Sanity is pleasant, calm, but there is no greatness, no true joy, nor the awful sorrow that slashes the heart."

"It's poetical. It doesn't hit the nail on the head," Goldblum says. "At first, when I made comments about the script, I asked ... maybe we could go with something a little more unambiguously uplifting and rewarding."

Now he has come to understand and appreciate the ambiguity. "It's not particularly a glamorization of insanity, even though the character is still mixed up and bedeviled by an aspect of his makeup," he says. "It's just a nostalgia any of us might have if we entirely jettison this life in the world as we know it."

- ADAM RESURRECTED will be shown Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Mandell Jewish Community Center, 335 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford. Admission is $18. The film is rated R. For tickets, visit mandelljcc.org.

NY Post: Jurassic Cop

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 01:58:00 +0000

April 18, 2009
Source: NY Post

IF first impressions are any indication, Jeff Goldblum will fit seamlessly into the "Law & Order" universe of quirky characters.

Chief among these is Vincent D'Onofrio's offbeat Det. Goren on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" -- and if Goldblum's April 26 debut on "Criminal Intent" is any indication, his style will bookend nicely with D'Onofrio's.

Known primarily for his big-screen roles (including the blockbuster "Jurassic Park"), Goldblum's stock-in-trade has been his loopy, off-kilter acting style shaded with a studied intensity that meshes with his gangly on-screen presence. Somehow, he pulls it all together into one tidy package.

That's all on display in his new role as Det. Zach Nichols, who's teamed with Det. Wheeler (Julianne Nicholson) now that her former partner, Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth), has departed the premises.

Nichols comes with some interesting baggage. For starters, we learn he was Ross's (Eric Bogosian) partner in anti-crime, and that, according to Ross, he's "a brilliant cop, very perceptive."

Now if you're thinking that "brilliant cop, very perceptive" is code for "obnoxious show-off," you'd be wrong; as played by Goldblum, Nichols exudes a certain likeability, and Goldblum underplays the character's tics.

We also learn that Nichols is the offspring of two shrinks (d'oh!) and that he took a seven-year leave-of-absence from the NYPD -- reason to be explained later, I'm guessing.

("He sent me a postcard from Cleveland once," is all we get from Ross.)

Nichols' first case revolves around the murder of Teeter, an aspiring MC (not a rapper, as Nichols points out) who lives in a spacious warehouse loft with a bunch of fellow musicians managed by their aging-rocker landlord, who played "the third-longest-set" at Woodstock.

When Rafe, another of the warehouse musicians, meets his maker at the bottom of an elevator shaft -- did he stumble drunkenly or was he pushed? -- Nichols zeroes in on the loft's irascible newbie, Hank.

This arrogant, get-ahead-at-all-costs guitarist from upstate Utica may or may not have offed his abusive father several years before -- but Nichols is convinced he's killed both Teeter (to get his girlfriend) and Rafe (to take his place in the band).

Goldblum is given a wide berth here to illustrate what will, I'm assuming, likely become Nichols' calling-card investigative methods -- from his evidence-gathering to his shrinky, stream-of-consciousness patter to his "one more thing" line of questioning in which he seems to be channeling Peter Falk's rumpled "Columbo."

It's a strong start for a solid actor -- and a nice addition to the "Criminal Intent" stable.

NYTimes: The Case of the Quirky New Detective

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:33:00 +0000

The Case of the Quirky New Detective
By DAVE ITZKOFF
Published: April 17, 2009
Source: NY Times
*Audio can be found at the link above!*

AMONG the things you expect to see on the set of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”: interrogation rooms, firearms, shifty-eyed suspects. Among the things you probably don’t expect to see: a baby grand piano. Among the things you definitely don’t expect to see: Jeff Goldblum improvising a jazz tune on that baby grand piano.

Jeff Goldblum, an accomplished pianist, in his dressing room for “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” Writers are working his musical skills into his new role on the show.

Yet there he was on a recent Friday afternoon at the Chelsea Piers studios, where “Criminal Intent” is produced, his sinewy, 6-foot-4 frame parked behind the keyboard of a Steinway as he tickled his way through a Gershwinesque composition. The scene that Mr. Goldblum was filming called for his character, an unconventional New York police detective recently returned to the force, to lull a witness into revealing details crucial to a murder investigation.

That his musical skills could actually have this effect on people, Mr. Goldblum later admitted, was “a little bit of poetic license, a leap and a conceit.” But, he added, “I’m supposed to be brilliant, so it’s O.K.”

Here Mr. Goldblum was referring to his role as Detective Zack Nichols, who joins the ranks of “Criminal Intent” on April 26, following the show’s return to the USA Network on Sunday. But as any time spent in his company reveals, this actor is also operating on a different plane of existence from the rest of us. Mr. Goldblum, 56, is an animated performer even when the cameras aren’t rolling. In conversation his wild, wide-armed gesticulations are as much a part of his vocabulary as the words he chooses, reconsiders and then chooses again; his sentences can have as many jams, twists and course corrections as a rush-hour ride on the Q train.

He is excitable enough when talking about his gym routine or the Ric Burns documentary “New York,” even more so when he is discussing roles that he connects to, and Mr. Goldblum evidently feels a very, very strong kinship to his “Law & Order” character.

From his dressing room suite, furnished with a Yamaha synthesizer and a fake Mark Rothko painting, Mr. Goldblum explained that he and his character “coincide because he is trying to get at the truth of what happened, and the truth of what makes human beings tick.”

Like an actor, a detective must sometimes conceal his authentic self from the people whose confidence he seeks.

“The person who really does this job,” he said, “would be going, without alerting them — without alerting them; so interesting: ‘You can trust me. I’m not going to alert you that you’re a suspect.’ ”

As Mr. Goldblum sees it, a detective, like an actor, must be perpetually inquisitive and a constant conduit of information. “You need to know,” he said methodically, “or be interested in as you watch him: What’s. He. Thinking?”

Audiences have probably asked themselves that same question about Mr. Goldblum, whose best-known film performances — a coterie of cracked geniuses in “The Fly,” “Jurassic Park” and “Independence Day” — can make one wonder how much of those characters’ twitchy, cerebral detachment he truly possesses. (The answer: a lot.)

It was this essential quality that Dick Wolf, the creator and executive producer of the “Law & Order” franchise, wanted from the actor when he cast him to replace Chris Noth, the “Law & Order” veteran who left the series last year.

As Mr. Wolf recalled in a telephone interview, when he met with Mr. Goldblum to offer him the part, he said, “I’m hiring you to be you, because it has to be like the oldest, most comfortable leather jacket in your closet. If you walk onto a set and think, ‘What would my character do?,’ we’re not writing the right character.”

None of this has discouraged Mr. Goldblum from questioning every aspect of his performance on the show, from how he should enter a room to how he should speak a banal line like “I’m afraid we have more bad news for you, Mrs. Dunbar.” (Not for nothing does he refer to his “Law & Order” role as “my current experiment.”) Julianne Nicholson, who plays Mr. Goldblum’s partner, Detective Megan Wheeler, said, “I always see him talking to the writers, talking to the director, talking to our on-set detective, talking to the other actors in the scene.”

If good acting is the art of listening, Ms. Nicholson said, “I think I’ve got the listening down.”

A certain amount of second-guessing has always been a part of Mr. Goldblum’s life. He could easily have become a professional musician and was talking his way into piano-playing gigs at cocktail lounges in Pittsburgh, where he grew up, before he graduated from high school.

Instead, at 17 he came to New York to study acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse, under the tutelage of the legendary Sanford Meisner, who instructed Mr. Goldblum to find his own voice and never copy anyone. (“Nothing revolutionary,” Mr. Goldblum said, “but I think it made an impression on me.”) Stage roles quickly led to small parts in the films “Death Wish” and “Nashville” and a feature career that’s lasted three decades and counting.

Though he starred in some of the highest-grossing movies of the 1990s, in this decade Mr. Goldblum has taken on more eclectic and obscure work, sometimes smaller roles that still allowed him to make his mark: a smug aristocrat in “Igby Goes Down,” a circus performer who survives the Holocaust in “Adam Resurrected.” In 2005 he played a police investigator in the Broadway production of Martin McDonagh’s “Pillowman,” and in 2007 he starred in a short-lived NBC series, “Raines,” about an eccentric police detective. (“It wasn’t all that dissimilar from aspects of this part,” Mr. Goldblum said, sotto voce.)The consistent quirkiness Mr. Goldblum exhibits in his performances, Mr. Wolf said, made him an ideal complement to Vincent D’Onofrio, the “Criminal Intent” star who will continue to play the idiosyncratic Detective Robert Goren in alternating weeks of the show. “If Goren is Wikipedia, Nichols is the DSM-IV,” Mr. Wolf said. “If Vincent is omniscient in terms of facts, Jeff is omniscient psychologically.”

Mr. Wolf added that, as the most character-driven series of the “Law & Order” franchise, “Criminal Intent” requires character actors. “I think Jeff would certainly identify himself as a character actor rather than a leading man,” he said.

But Mr. Goldblum resisted any such attempts to categorize himself. “The less labeling I can do of myself, I find, I have a better, more effective time,” he said.

If it seems a step down to go from Steven Spielberg blockbusters to a television police procedural, Mr. Goldblum said he never expects much consistency from one project to the next. In his profession, he said, it is perilous to assume that a certain size or type of role will always come along, or that a certain approach to one’s roles will always work — to find oneself thinking, as he said: “Now I’ll turn that solution into a policy. Now that’s how I’ll skin all the cats.”

Within every actor, Mr. Goldblum said, is a guiding voice that, like a child or a puppy, cannot be told what to do and must be allowed to play. “If you go: ‘Play now. Play hard. Play quick,’ ” he said, snapping his fingers frantically, “your inner actor will go, ‘No, I’m no longer interested.’ ”

The rigors of a weekly television series would seem to frustrate this philosophy. But Mr. Goldblum said he was enjoying “Law & Order” (“it’s a ducky job, just awfully peachy”) because it was forcing him to make quick decisions — quicker than he is used to — while teaching him that he can learn to live with the consequences.

“My state-of-the-art thinking about it,” he said, “is to just do as much as I can without becoming hysterical in a way that’s going to undermine the whole thing.”

Jeff Goldblum joins "Criminal Intent" as only Jeff Goldblum can join "Criminal Intent"

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:22:00 +0000

Jeff Goldblum joins "Criminal Intent" as only Jeff Goldblum can join "Criminal Intent"
April 17, 2008
Source: KansasCity.com Blogs

At some point during the new season of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” Jeff Goldblum is going to show up and go all Jeff Goldblum on the unwitting perps.

Now, for those of you who may have missed that NBC series where he played a detective who got crime-solving tips from his dead partner, let me tell you something: There are very few actors on television who can look at the ground and mumble quite as convincingly as Jeff Goldblum.

As it happens, however, one of those other actors is his new co-star, Vincent D'Onofrio, who kicks off the eighth (!) season for “Criminal Intent” at 8 p.m. CT Sunday on USA Network.

I know “Criminal Intent” has been compared to “Columbo,” and I suppose both Peter Falk's raincoat savant and D'Onofrio's shifty-eyed brooder eventually get their man in remarkably similar, allegedly “intuitive” ways. But c'mon -- if Falk was the crazy uncle, D'Onofrio is the crazy cousin. Big difference.

Still, I have to admit that the big lug works surprisingly well within the confines of the “CI” format. While everyone else is exerting their acting muscles to push the storyline along, D'Onofrio stares into the distance and talks to himself. It's strangely compelling.

With the addition of Goldblum (and subtraction of Chris Noth's more conventional copper), New York's nuttiest crime-solving unit gains another member.

Goldblum will make his debut as crime fighter Zack Nichols on next week's “Criminal Intent,” when he'll circle slowly around the suspects in the death of a rap MC until he intuits that the killer is the weirdest guy on the scene besides himself.

Video: Goldblum Street

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:37:00 +0000

Another video of Jeff on Sesame Street!

Thanks Ms. Frost! :)

Video: When Jeff Goldblum Meets Grover

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:01:00 +0000

I thought this was sooo cute!!! I remember seeing this as a kid. Not really noticing Jeff lol.

Happy Easter!!!

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:43:00 +0000

Jeff Goldblum on Letterman April 20!

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:20:00 +0000

Just a notice (via Michelle):

Jeff Goldblum will be appearing on "The Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS at 11:35 PM+EST on April 20th!!!

Jeff Goldblum Excited About L&O: CI! + Audio

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:59:00 +0000

Jeff Goldblum Is Really, Really Excited About Joining ‘Law & Order: Criminal Intent.’ (Really.)
By Dave Itzkoff
April 6, 2009
Source: NYTimes.com

Jeff GoldblumUSA Network Jeff Goldblum as Detective Zack Nichols, a character with whom he may share a kinship or two.

As previous experience has taught us, some performers cannot be best represented by words on a page. Their worldviews are just too expansive, their thoughts about the artistic life and the search for truth too all-encompassing to be consolidated into a few quotations for a newspaper article or a blog post.

Jeff Goldblum is one of those performers.

Starting on April 26, Mr. Goldblum, the idiosyncratic star of “The Fly,” “Jurassic Park,” “Independence Day,” “Igby Goes Down” and “Death Wish,” among others, will join the cast of the crime drama “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” as Detective Zack Nichols, a quirky investigator who is returning to the police force after a post-9/11 sabbatical to rediscover himself and life’s meanings.

Suffice to say that this is a role for which Mr. Goldblum is well suited and for which he possesses considerable enthusiasm.

On a recent visit to the Chelsea set of “CI” (as the cool kids call it), we watched Mr. Goldblum film a pair of scenes in which his character employs his unconventional investigative techniques on a murder suspect (and in which the actor gets to show off his formidable skills as a jazz pianist). Then, in his dressing room, we asked Mr. Goldblum about his approach to the scene he’d just shot, yielding the following response:

Click here to hear the audio!

Jeff Goldblum Joins the Cast of "Morning Glory"

noreply@blogger.com (UltimateJeffGoldblum.com) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:44:00 +0000

Keaton, Goldblum join "Glory"
Comedy stars Harrison Ford, Rachel McAdams
By Michael Fleming
Source: Variety.com

Diane Keaton and Jeff Goldblum have signed on to join Harrison Ford and Rachel McAdams in the comedy "Morning Glory" for Paramount Pictures.

J.J. Abrams is producing the film, which centers on an aspiring news producer (McAdams) who tries to save a failing morning show by getting control of its feuding anchors. Ford and Keaton will play the dueling on-air personalities. Goldblum will portray McAdams' boss.

Roger Michell will direct the pic, which is scheduled to begin lensing next month in New York.

"The Devil Wears Prada" scribe Aline Brosh McKenna penned the screenplay.

Abrams and Bryan Burk are producing for Abrams' Par-based Bad Robot shingle. Sherryl Clark and Guy Riedel are exec producing.

Keaton, who co-starred with McAdams in "The Family Stone," most recently toplined the bank heist comedy "Mad Money."

Goldblum, who just booked a role in Mandate Pictures' "The Baster" alongside Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston, most recently starred in "Adam Resurrected."
He also stars as Detective Zach Nichols on "Law and Order: Criminal Intent."