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    Matthew Jacobs

    Matthew Jacobs

    Entertainment Reporter, HuffPost

  • Danny Elfman On Film Scores, 'Simpsons' And Working With Tim Burton

    The way film composer and former Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman tells it, his whole career boils down to two words: "Fuck it." He muttered that philosophical phrase when he offered an opportunity to write his first movie score – for director Tim Burton's feature debut, "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" -- and the musician said it again when given the chance to perform his now-impressive catalog of symphonic cinematic creations in his "Music From the Films of Tim Burton" concert series. The shows, which opened in London in 2013 and will kick off its New York City at Lincoln Center on July 6th, contain 15 suites of music from throughout Elfman's three decades of collaborations with the director -- from the primal mania of "Pee-wee" to the textured grandeur of "Alice in Wonderland," with stops at "Beetlejuice," "Batman" and "Edward Scissorhands," among others, along the way.

  • 12 Things You Learn Hanging Out With Mark Ruffalo

    Mark Ruffalo spent his twenties drifting through what he estimates as 600 failed auditions, and later quit Hollywood twice – but these days, he seems to have it all figured out. Hanging out in a West Village coffee house and in Central Park in his interview for our Hulk cover story, Ruffalo had plenty to say: Here's more from the conversation. Playing the Hulk changed everything.

  • The Amy Winehouse We Never Knew

    About two years ago, documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia began interviewing Amy Winehouse's friends, collaborators and family members in a darkened studio in London. Winehouse had died less than two years earlier, and emotions were still raw. Kapadia's film, Amy — which premiered at Cannes in May to rave reviews and begins rolling out across America in early July — tells the story of the troubled singer in unprecedented depth.

  • 'The Wolfpack' Ventures Out With One Of The Year's Best Documentaries

    The results of that fateful encounter will be realized on Friday when "The Wolfpack" opens. Moselle spent five years peeking in on the Angulo family, visiting their small apartment to make a documentary about these young men who used popular culture as a means of coping with isolation. Sometimes somber and sometimes brimming with hope, "The Wolfpack" feels as raw as the experience it depicts.

  • Behind Jack Black's Dark Comeback

    When Jack Black was a first-grader, he loved "The Six Million Dollar Man" so much he tried to convince other kids that he was bionic: "I'd go to school with these wires poking out of my sleeves," he says.

  • Zedd On What He's Learned From Skrillex, Lady Gaga And The Beatles

    Zedd's music has a huge sound, so it can be surprising meeting the unassuming Anton Zaslavski in person. The DJ-producer spoke to Rolling Stone about inspirations beyond dance music, studying under Skrillex and collaborating with Lady Gaga.

  • Florence Welch On Stripping Down At Coachella And Fooling Neil Young

    "I had to fall apart a bit," says Florence Welch of "How Big How Blue How Beautiful," the first Florence and the Machine album in four years. In the period leading up to the album, Welch, 28, endured a rough breakup with her boyfriend and was partying too much. Not only did Welch translate her hard times into her most emotionally intense album yet, she also quit drinking during the sessions.

  • Meet The Lettermen: 'Late Show' Staff On Working With Dave

    It's no secret to anyone who's a fan that David Letterman is a huge car-racing enthusiast. For the past 20 years he's been the part owner of an IndyCar team (now called Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), and he has often compared his "Late Show" to a finely tuned race car, with himself as the driver and his staff as the pit crew that makes it run. As the checkered flag drops and the "Late Show" enters its last lap, we spoke with several of these longtime staffers about the show, the genius of Letterman, and the end.

  • 9 Things We Learned From The Kurt Cobain Doc 'Montage of Heck'

    You would have thought that, 21 years after Kurt Cobain took his own life, there would be precious few facts left to unearth about the Nirvana frontman. What does Brett Morgen's years-in-the-making look at Kurt's world have to tell us that we don't already know, you might ask. Using the musician's own home movies, journal entries, personal recordings, notebook scrawlings and drawings (not to mention the usual assortment of vintage concert clips and TV interview footage), this left-of-center attempt to understand Cobain via his own words and works could not offer a more intimate look at the iconic figure.

  • Tatiana Maslany Talks Emmy Snub And Her Nine 'Orphan Black' Roles

    It's not like we're sending spaceships flying around -- we're just putting two characters played by one person in a room together. To me, our show is more of a character drama with elements of comedy and horror than a sci-fi show. Did you have any doubts about your ability to pull off all of these roles?

  • Ava DuVernay's Success Means She's No Longer A 'Hot Mess' Around Oprah

    Ava DuVernay isn't technically a newcomer to Hollywood, but her stature has grown so meteorically in recent months that one might assume she is. Is that hope that one day soon you won't be asked questions like this?

  • Secrets of 'Avengers: Age of Ultron': Joss Whedon Tells All

    "You've got to help me with this ankle bracelet – it shocks me if I try to go to Warner Bros.," says Joss Whedon. The writer/director of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" is, of course, joking: While he did just spend three months as a virtual prisoner on Disney's Burbank studio lot, living right on the property, working seven days a week away from his family, the ordeal was self-imposed. In the dark editing bay where he finished the highly anticipated sequel to the 2012 blockbuster, and then over lunch at Disney's on-site restaurant – where the salt shakers are shaped like Mickey Mouse – Whedon spoke at length about the film, the Hulk, and his future.

  • Ice Cube On N.W.A's 'Reality Rap' And 'Straight Outta Compton' Movie

    "Compton hasn't changed," Ice Cube says of the L.A. suburb where he got his start. Growing up in that environment inspired the rapper -- along with luminaries Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren and DJ Yella -- to form N.W.A, the controversy-welcoming group responsible for popularizing gangster rap with songs like "Fuck tha Police" and "Gangsta Gangsta." This summer, he's bringing the group's story to the big screen as one of the producers of "Straight Outta Compton," a biopic that covers group's formation in the mid Eighties through Eazy-E's death of AIDS in 1995 -- what Ice Cube calls the end of an era.

  • 'Game of Thrones' Creators On Season 5: 'We're Building to a Crescendo'

    As legions of "Game of Thrones" fans can attest, HBO's fantasy series has never skimped on spectacle, big set pieces or creative ways of detailing what happens when you cross the wrong politically ambitious person in Westeros and beyond. Ask showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss that question, however, and they'll tell you that things are just getting warmed up — according to the pair, the upcoming fifth season is going to be the most epic to date. "We're starting to build to a crescendo now," Benioff says.

  • The Director Of 'Going Clear' On His Bold Scientology Doc

    Having already stirred up a hornet's nest after its premiere last January at the Sundance Film Festival and a brief theatrical run, Oscar winner Alex Gibney's new documentary "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" is about to take the sins of Scientology and turn them into Sunday-night appointment viewing. Debuting on HBO on March 29th, the documentarian's adaptation of Lawrence Wright's Pulitzer-winning 2013 book systematically makes its case against the religion. Delving into accusations of emotional and physical abuse perpetrated by its founder L. Ron Hubbard and Chairman of the Board David Miscavige, as well as the organization's harassment of critics and alleged dirty-ops blackmailing of celebrities, "Going Clear" assembles its argument from interviews with former members and hard-to-obtain documents and footage from within the Church itself.

  • One Direction's Zayn Malik: The Lost Q&A

    The following article is provided by Rolling Stone. In April of 2012, just as they were breaking in the United States, the members of One Direction spent several days hanging out with Rolling Stone for a major feature that, in the end, went unpublished.

  • A Track-By-Track Guide To Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp a Butterfly'

    The following article is provided by Rolling Stone. The appearance of Kendrick Lamar's highly anticipated new album, "To Pimp a Butterfly," on iTunes and Spotify Sunday night — more than a week before its scheduled March 23rd release date — apparently falls in the latter category. Fans, however, are enjoying the early release — an album that Lamar calls "honest, fearful and unapologetic" in the cover story of the new issue of Rolling Stone.

  • Inside Mumford & Sons' 'Liberating' New Album

    The following article is provided by Rolling Stone. When Mumford & Sons went on break in the fall of 2013, Marcus Mumford had no idea how long it would last. Mumford has mostly kept away from the press since the group initially took time off, but in this interview, he discusses the band's new way of working together, their upcoming summer tour and why they feels closer than ever.

  • Kim Gordon On Divorce, Art And Life After Sonic Youth

    Kim Gordon wants to get a burger at the Apple Pan, a tiny burger joint on Los Angeles' West Side that opened in 1947 and which she began frequenting as a kid. "My family used to live in a house on the other side of Pico, then we moved to another house close by, and we always came here," Gordon says. "There was this guy, Gordon, who worked here for years.

  • Danny DeVito At 70: A National Treasure On Sex, Drugs And Family

    The following article is provided by Rolling Stone. Outside his Malibu beach house, all snuggly in the early-afternoon sun, belly protruding from a half-unbuttoned shirt, balding scalp protected by a ball cap, feet not even coming close to touching the end of the chaise longue upon which he rests, Danny DeVito is working his way through one cup of coffee, preparatory to having another one, and maybe even a third.