Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls) recently sat down with Envy Magazine for an interview and photoshoot. In the interview, entitled “Alexis Bledel - Class Act,” Alexis talks about her new movie, Post Grad, which will be released to theaters on August 21, 2009.

Alexis talked about the intimidation of working with a comedy crew and about working with Carol Burnett in particular. Alexis tells a funny story of how she had this image of Carol from Annie, which was completely different from how she was in real life (of course).

Talking of image, Alexis talks about how she doesn’t often get called in for “R” rated films, because “they think audiences don’t want to see that” from her, often times because they consider her in the light of her work on Gilmore Girls. She says sometimes she can psyche herself out of trying for those roles too! That said, Alexis shares she’d love to do a “really twisted psychological thriller.” Read more

Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls) partnered with JustJared’s Jared Eng to help Coach launch their new Poppy handbag collection. The party, held at the Coach store in Short Hills, NJ on July 1st, was a great success and, thanks to Jared, I can share some photos from the event!

Click to enlarge - more after the jump

In an interview with JustJared, Alexis shared her plans for July 4th, her favorite BBQ dish (”moist brisket!”), what she likes about the Poppy collection for Coach, her favorite charity, and where she would like to go on vacation this year… nothing lofty, just a trip to Grand Canyon! Read more

In an interview published this week, Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls) talks about her upcoming film, Post Grad, and about her experience portraying Rory on Gilmore Girls.

Alexis shares a few tidbits about the relevancy of the film today, but is quickly asked about how she wanted to make Ryden different from Gilmore Girls’ Rory. In comparing the two characters, Alexis says:

“Well, as the years went by on Gilmore Girls, I noticed that Rory was kind of like an idealized product of the show’s imagination because she was really perfect in a lot of ways, which started to annoy me a bit, but you have to keep playing the character. But Ryden -– I think she’s much more relatable in a lot of ways and this character’s story picks up in the same stage of life where Rory left off, graduating from college. So for anyone who likes the show, its kind of -– it’s a continuation in a way, but she’s a completely different girl because she makes a lot of mistakes. She has a very typical college experience. She’s kind of an average girl, and I can relate much more to her.”

I have to agree with Alexis here and I think that Season 6 and 7 of Gilmore Girls suffer from this perfection. It’s not just limited to the character of Rory, though. I think all the characters became too perfectly coiffed, with things that came too easily to them (relationships aside). Many of us bonded with Gilmore Girls because the characters were realistic - they ran out of clothes, they were late to class, they made mistakes. That realism was lost as the series progressed (in my opinion). I always thought that Alexis seemed the most disconnected from this perfect-Rory, so it’s nice to hear Alexis talk about it.

Image: splashnewsonline.com

Alan Loayza starred in Gilmore Girls as Colin McCrae of the Life & Death Brigade. Since promoting his work in the Role Playing-based web series, GOLD, I’ve exchanged a few emails with Alan about his recent projects and his experience on Gilmore Girls.

Alan has a diverse creative background, including acting, music and photography. Most recently, Alan was in Paris doing a photo shoot that you can currently find featured at the top of his website. He also worked with Tanc Sade & Nick Holmes on the Two Straws short. His web series, GOLD, has now aired 5 episodes (see them here) with the Season 1 finale to air on June 26, 2009. Alan Loayza can be also be found online at twitter.com/alanloayza.

GilmoreGirlsNews.com: How did you get involved in the GOLD web series?

Alan Loayza: GOLD came about from David Nett who has a theatre company that I did a play with. The company is called Lucid by Proxy and I got involved through some old college buddies from CalArts. One day David said ,"I’m making a web series about D&D gamers and I want you to play the head of the British team." I didn’t know countries had D&D teams but the Lucid people always make great original work so I knew this wouldn’t be any different.

GilmoreGirlsNews.com: Could you describe your character on GOLD and how he evolves in the series?

Alan Loayza: Oliver Crane is a megalomaniacal self-proclaimed leader of his team. His only goal in life is to defeat the Americans at any costs using his fame and psychological tactics to set the Americans off. The funniest part about Oliver’s past is that he was the star of an old BBC show where he solved crimes with the ghost of J.R.R. Tolkien. This is one for the fantasy geeks through and through. The thing with Oliver that is a running theme with the show is that he’s not on his game as we are to believe he used to be, and that’s GOLD in a nutshell. An ensemble of characters loosing their grip of what they used to have going for them. Read more

Tanc Sade payed the Life & Death Brigade eccentric Finn on Gilmore Girls. Tanc was born in Australia and had worked in several theatrical productions, as well as some tv and movie roles, before landing his role on Gilmore Girls.

Tanc and I exchanged emails recently, after I promoted one of his short films, Two Straws, which brought together 2 other Gilmore Girls Life & Death Brigade alumns, Nick Holmes (Robert) and Alan Loayza (Colin McCrae). This was Tanc’s second $20 short, after You Had Me at Hello, with a brand new short released just this week, A New Dawn. This latest film features Tanc wearing a Motion Capture Suit doing a little dance as the Hulk. The film ends with a message about Prop 8: “If the Green Man can loosen up a little, so can you. Support same-sex marriage.”

In the interview below, Tanc talks more about these $20 shorts, as well as some of his experiences on Gilmore Girls. Tanc can also be found on Twitter at twitter.com/giddyuptiger.

GilmoreGirlsNews.com: In homage to Twitter, tell us a little bit about yourself in 140 characters or less.

Tanc Sade: A lucky fella who gets to create art and still put food on the table and keep a roof over his head. It may be simple but it’s a good life…

GilmoreGirlsNews.com: What inspired you to start working on the $20 shorts?

Tanc Sade: Between the economy and the looming SAG strike work had slowed down. As an artist, if I’m not working as an actor, I need to be doing something else. I loved the experience of making Flowers and Weeds and thought it would be great to direct again. By giving myself the limitations of completing the films in less then 7 days and for less than $20, it meant I had to really push myself creatively. I think it has also made me a better director.

GilmoreGirlsNews.com: Where did the idea come for your latest short, Two Straws?

Tanc Sade: No idea. It goes something like this. I want to make a short. I want to work with Nick and Alan. I need to shoot it in one location. OK, two guys at a bar. 10 minutes later I had Two Straws. Read more

Prior to starting in on Season 7 (yes, 7, not 8 - darn misleading ads!), ABC Family will be airing the Gilmore Girls Backstage Special on Friday June 5th at 5pm and again on June 8th at 11am.

The 2004 special was hosted by Brooke Burke and has the cast sharing their favorite moments over the first 3 seasons of Gilmore Girls. Here’s Lauren Graham talking with Scott Patterson in their backstage special interview:

Thanks Regis!

Lauren Graham made a special appearance today on the Rachael Ray show. Lauren was announced as “the coolest mom on earth” with some Gilmore Girls clips set up to introduce her appearance.

Lauren admits seeing the clip kind of “freaked her out” since it was from such a long time ago (for her). She admits that the 7 years of production kind of blend together for her now. Rachael then asks if Lauren is “stuck in Lorelai”, in terms of how people see her. Lauren responds:

“I think I’ve realized I’m not, because, like anything, it’s now been 2 years since the last episode, so I’ve gotten a chance to do some other things. But, I realize that because of reruns, and just how television works now, that it’s going to be on forever. And so, for the rest of my life, people will be asking me when the Gilmore Girls movie is. And I’ll have to keep saying ‘I don’t know.’”

Lauren mentions how, for her growing up, her Gilmore Girls was Laverne & Shirley. They continue talking about Gilmore Girls (this is nice!) and how people relate to her as if she were Lorelai, with people always telling her their similarities to the Gilmore Girls characters. Lauren says it’s sweet. Read more

In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls) talked more about her new movie, The Good Guy, as well as a little about Gilmore Girls.

Alexis was asked if she misses playing a consistent character on television, like she did with Rory on Gilmore Girls. Alexis talks about liking characters on both tv and film, but says she’s hesitant to sign up for a regular series role since there are a lot of things she’d like to do that are impossible if you’re on a show:

“I like the pace of films, going from one job to the next every few months. I like change a lot. Nothing I’ve done since Gilmore Girls feels quite as tedious or exhausting—you just have so many words to learn every day! So I think I’ll wait a few years before doing something like Gilmore Girls again. Signing up for a show is almost like entering a relationship—it has to feel right because it becomes such a big part of your life.”

Alexis talks about how she became involved with The Good Guy, about her other upcoming film, Post Grad, including how much fun it was to work with Michael Keaton on that film. They allude to how Post Grad picks up where Gilmore Girls left off, something Alexis has alluded to before. When asked if the character in Post Grad is like Rory, Alexis says: Read more

Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls) recently attended the Tribeca Film Festival for the premiere of her movie, The Good Guy. A couple of interviews have surfaced from the premiere.

Alexis talks with AMC about how The Good Guy is a great movie for girls and how lucky she was with her hunky co-stars Scott Porter and Bryan Greenberg. She talks about what drew her to Beth, who “doesn’t put up with any crap,” and the demons her own character has to face (Beth dated a married man!). Alexis talks about how timely the movie is, with the changes in the economy, contrasting the “old” Wall Street lifestyle of parties to the “recession way of thinking” and to what it means now to lead a fulfilling life.

Gilmore Girls pops into the interview too, when they ask if people have a lot of preconceived notions of who she is based on her Rory character.

“Oh, yeah. But I don’t feel I’m anything like Rory. Aside from sounding the same — and physically [laughs]. Usually people call me Rory; I don’t think they actually know my real name. But I was always happy that she was a great character and very different from other teenage characters on television.”

Alexis talks about being excited to do more age-appropriate roles, which she was limited by time from considering while doing Gilmore Girls. She loved Sin City for being starkly different from Gilmore Girls, but mentioned how her other upcoming film, Post Grad, “kind of picks up from the stage of life where Gilmore Girls left off” and how she’s ok with that. Read more

A few months ago I mentioned that you could submit questions to Lauren Graham for a feature interview with Broadway.com talking about Guys and Dolls and much more. That interview is now done and the 12-minute interview can be watched below:

Lauren Graham answers some fun fan questions for the interview:

• As an Irish gal, do you live up to the fun-loving image so many people have?
• If you could have the voice of any singer, dead or alive, who would it be?
• Did you participate in musicals during high school? Which roles did you play?
• Were you nervous to strip down as a hot box girl on stage?
• What’s your favorite costume?
• What kind of music do you like listening to? Favorite artists?
• Do you come from a theatrical family or are you the black sheep?
• What’s the wackiest thing you’ve been asked to do for a tv commercial? (funny wedding dress commentary)
• In what ways are you like Adelaide?
• What do you look for in a man? (cute sarcasm)
• Now that you are in New York for a while, how is your dog handling it?
• Would you do a Gilmore Girls reunion show in, say, 10 years?
• Don’t you have a new show coming up? Tell us about it! (She expects the show name to change, BTW)
• What are some items in your dressing room?
• Do you have any funny auditions stories you’d be willing to share?
• What’s your favorite song in Guys and Dolls?
• What’s the best part about being on Broadway?

Her answers to all the questions are hilarious, and I’m glad the questions were a little outside-the-norm, allowing us to get to know Lauren a little better.

Since this is a Gilmore Girls site, I’ll quote out her answer to the reunion show question, where Lauren says: Read more