Our Interview with Sara Paxton About Dancing, Romance and Her New Musical “Lovestruck: The Musical” Premiering on ABC Family

Reblogged from the Red Carpet Report

Mingle Media TV’s Red Carpet Report got to interview Sara Paxton (“Aquamarine”) about her role as Mirabella, the daughter of Harper (portrayed by Jane Seymour AND Chelsea Kane) in the new original movie musical “Lovestruck: The Musical” premiering Sunday April 21, 8:00-10:00 p.m., ET/PT on ABC Family.

Our Interview with Sara

We asked Sara why she wanted to do this movie? She told us that she enjoyed doing musical theatre growing up but never a musical so this would be her first opportunity and she really wanted to do it.

She told us that she felt her character (daughter of Jane Seymour’s character and star of the dance company her mother runs) was relatable to girls and their relationships with their mothers. In the movie Sara’s mom doesn’t want her to give up her dream by quitting and getting married but it turns out it’s really her Mom’s dream not hers. She told us that every girl will deals with some aspect of this as it’s hard for a Mom to realize her daughter is growing up and making her own decisions.

The movie was shot in Pittsburgh and Sara said she loves to travel as part of her job and explore new cities and she loved Pittsburgh.

We asked her how it was to work with Jane Seymour? She told us that Jane was so grew, amazing and impressive as an actress and dancer. She was also very maternal (being the mother of six) and she kept reminding us to stretch beforehand.

Talking about the dancing, she said that Michael Rooney (“(500) Days of Summer,” “The Muppets” and choreographer of music videos for Fatboy Slim and Gnarls Barkley’s “Run,” for which he won his 5th MTV Award for Best Choreography) expected the best from the cast, the routines were really hard but she said that she considers her talent to be actress, singer then dancer.

Sara told us she was like this character in that she would follow her heart but she hasn’t found the right person yet.

Finally, we asked what was her favorite number in the musical? That was easy, it was Everlasting Love with 25 cast members dancing and they did it all in one take.

Oh, we did ask if she was going to follow in Jane Seymour’s footsteps and be on a future Dancing with the Stars and she just laughed.

Sara Paxton as Mirabella, in “Lovestruck: The Musical”

Sara Paxton as Mirabella, in “Lovestruck: The Musical”

About “Lovestruck: The Musical”

“Lovestruck: The Musical” tells the story of Harper (Jane Seymour), one of the best dancers to hit Broadway. But an injury caused her to leave the spotlight, become a choreographer, and raise her daughter, Mirabella (Sara Paxton). When Mirabella, the star of Harper’s next big production, decides to quit the show to get married, her mother is determined to put a stop to the wedding and show Mirabella that she cannot give up her career for love, especially to marry playboy Marco (Alexander DiPersia). After the long flight to the Italian wedding site, Harper takes a swig from a strange bottle that is supposed to dull the pain of an old dance injury. Instead, the elixir magically turns Harper 30 years younger.

Get the Soundtrack

A digital only soundtrack is available featuring the cast covering pop hits, including Lady Gaga’s Just Dance, Madonna’s Like a Virgin, Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody, and Usher’s DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love, among others, as well as original songs. Click here to get the soundtrack on iTunes

About the Creators

The script was written by Terry Rossio (“Pirates of the Caribbean,” “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” “Shrek”) and Jaylynn Bailey. Executive Producers are two-time Emmy® nominated motion picture and television producer Debra Martin Chase (“The Princess Diaries,” “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” “Just Wright,” “Lemonade Mouth,” “Sparkle,” and the upcoming remake of “Dirty Dancing.”) and Rossio. Sanaa Hamri (“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2,” “Just Wright,” “Something New,” and director of music videos for Prince, Mariah Carey, Jay Z and for Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass,” winner for Best Hip-Hop Video at MTV’s VMA’s) is set to direct; and Michael Rooney (“(500) Days of Summer,” “The Muppets” and choreographer of music videos for Fatboy Slim and Gnarls Barkley’s “Run,” for which he won his 5th MTV Award for Best Choreography) is set to choreograph. Gaylyn Fraiche (“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2,” “Just Wright” and “Lemonade Mouth”) is also a producer.

About Disney Family
Part of the Disney/ABC Television Group, ABC Family is distributed in over 97 million homes. ABC Family features programming reflecting today’s families, entertaining and connecting with adults through relatable programming about today’s relationships – told with a mix of diversity, passion, humor and heart. ABC Family’s programming is a combination of network defining original series and original movies, quality acquired series and blockbuster theatricals. Emmy® Award-winning ABCFamily.com provides a variety of interactive entertainment and community features, from rich, fan-centric programming – including blogs, viewing parties, webisodes, full episodes of the network’s hit programming, along with sneak peek exclusive previews and behind-the-scenes clips. ABC Family is also the destination for annual Holiday events with “13 Nights of Halloween” and “25 Days of Christmas.” ABC Family. A New Kind of Family.

A Love Filled-Horror Story?

If you read my previous post, you’ll know that I am a sucker for a good dating series… going from the dates that our heroine in the web series “Dating in the Middle Ages” faces to the very depths of true horror dating in the short film “The Horror of Our Love” from Elftwin Films, there’s no loss for these story tellers in conveying their search for true love while coupling it with music.

We met Dave Reda, the director, writer and actor of this short film at the HollyShorts last month and loved what he had to say about the industry and competing in festivals. Check out our interview here:

The Horror of Our Love, short film, is a combo horror/comedy/love story that is based on the song by the band Ludo. As this film is still in the festival rounds, it is not available online for you to view… but you can listen to the song that inspired Dave Reda to write this entertaining but short – short!

Stay tuned… there will be more awesomeness coming from this filmmaker (award winning filmmaker, we’d like to add).

Calling All the Single Ladies… in LaLaLand (Los Angeles)

Turbo Dates, Speed Dates, Fix-ups, Blind Dates, Internet Dating, Church Socials, Dating co-workers, Matchmakers, Chance Encounters….where does a single girl go to find a quality man today?

Silence.

Exactly what I thought, there is no good place. So I Googled “dating” and of course, I found an article on dating in Los Angeles. It’s pretty much a guide of where to go on a date. UGH!!!

It’s not easy to be single in a big city or small city. We can get frustrated or we can look for humor. Half full or half empty? Which are you?

Well, I found an awesome new web series that takes the wonderful world of dating and made it tolerable by adding some music to the nightmare dates that the lead finds herself in. It’s called “Dating in the Middle Ages” and is written by Devin Mills. Let me share the preview with you before I tell you how you can come to the LIVE premiere on Sunday in Los Angeles.

Doesn’t that just look like an awesome web series for those who have loved… and lost? And loved and cried, and is still hopeful??

You can come out to the awesome PREMIERE and support the Single Ladies… (and men) and see my heart throb “John Schneider” by clicking here and purchasing your ticket! It’s this Sunday and it will be worth every last moment of your time… I promise, cause, I’ll be there and we’ll have a great time. Come out and keep the dream alive!!! There is a Mr. Right out there, you just have to kiss a lot of Mr. Wrong’s to get to him.

OH, WAIT!!

“What is your worst dating story?” Share it here and you could win some cool prizes!!

FYI – Mingle Media TV will be covering the Red Carpet… so we’ll have photos and video interviews for those of you who are not in LA – but if you’re in LA – Please come out and support Devin Mills – solidarity sisters!

LA Shorts Film Festival Opens Tonight: Red Carpet and Premiere Screenings of New Shorts!

Tis the season for film festivals and the LA Shorts Fest ’10 is kicking off the week long event tonight with a red carpet opening and screening of several films. The LA Shorts Fest is the largest short film festival in the world attracting more than 15,000 filmmakers, moviegoers and entertainment execs. (See schedule here)

The term “Short Film” originated in the early days of N.American cinema and generally relates to a film that is 20-40 minutes in length but with film festivals going international, there are all lengths of shorts from 1 minute to 15 minutes as well.  The categories range from Action/Adventure, Animation,  Comedy, Commercial, Documentary, Drama, Erotic, Experimental, Family, Foreign, Gay/Lesbian, Horror, Latin, Music Video, Musical, Romance, Sci-Fi, and my favorite: Suspense/Thriller. Check out the variety of films playing at this year’s festival by clicking here.

Tonight following the Red Carpet where Andy Fickman, Mariana Klaveno, David Krumholtz, Chris Masterson, Rhys Coiro, Tom Arnold, Victor Webster, Mimi Steinbauer (Hyde Park president), Brian O’Shea (Affinity president), Cort Lane (Marvel VP), will be talking to the press, the lineup will be as follows:

  • Darkroom:   Director: Johnny Hardstaff, 4 min.
  • The Gift:   Director: Carl Erik Rinsch, 5 min.
  • Jun and the Hidden Skies:   Director: Hi Sim, 3 min.
  • El Secreto de Mateo:   Director: Greg Fay, 4min.
  • Kidnapping Caitlynn:   Director: Kat Coiro, 10 min.
  • Idiots:   Director: Kat Coiro, 4 min.
  • Quality Time:   Director: James Redford, 9 min.
  • Prom: Director: Martin Bell, 33 min.
  • The Hunt:   Director: Jake Scott, 3min.
  • Four Play:   Director: Jake Summer, 2 min.

Other highlights of the festival include films by Sting’s son, Vin Diesel and a collaboration with Ridley Scott. But that’s not all – this event is one of the ones where candidates for the Oscar’s are selected, so it’s a big deal to be selected to screen your film here.

The venue is at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theatres in Hollywood on Sunset. Tonight is a beautiful night for the LA Shorts Fest to kick off with a red carpet event and Mingle Media TV is excited to be covering it… oh and we will have more for you from interviews to a special look into a short with Chris Masterson from Malcolm in the Middle…

Sing for a Chance to go to the Tony’s! (Now if only I could sing…) #TixToTonys

Loved seeing this contest sponsored by Macy’s for the upcoming 64th Annual Tony Awards. With so many people loving theatre (me) and Glee (okay, me too)… getting the opportunity to put a video up for a chance to win a trip to go to the Tony’s is a dream come true.

So here’s how it works… if you are older than the age of 13 and can upload video content of yourself singing one of the following Broadway tunes (my favorite is ONE from a Chorus Line) then you’re entered to win:

  • “96,000” – In the Heights
  • “Gimme, Gimme” – Thoroughly Modern Millie
  • “Good Morning, Baltimore” – Hairspray
  • “I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outa My Hair” – South Pacific
  • “The Lonely Goatherd” – The Sound of Music
  • “Maybe” – Annie
  • “One” – A Chorus Line
  • “Stars” – Les Misérables
  • “Ya Got Trouble” – The Music Man

So go get your voice warmed up and go upload your awesome video to www.CBS.com/Tonys now through May 27 when the fun starts with public voting ending on June 1 at 12:00 AM, ET. Phase II starts on June 3, when the five semi-finalists will be revealed and yes, more voting. The five finalists will also be flown to New York City to participate in a live sing-off in Macy’s Herald Square on Friday, June 11 – where a panel of Broadway stars and experts, along with the online votes, will choose two finalists who will win the opportunity to walk the red carpet at THE 64TH ANNUAL TONY AWARDS at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 13. The two finalists will also be decked out for the red carpet with a $1,000.00 gift card from Macy’s.

Finalists will be featured on The 64th Annual Tony Awards, Sunday, June 13  on CBS!!

What are you waiting for – go here! (Make your video first…)