'The Lorax': Taylor Swift finally taught Zac Efron to play guitar

Taylor Swift fans of the world, let it be known that you guys just might have a chance with the pop-country star, even post-Joe Jonas and post-Taylor Lautner. In “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” Zac Efron’s character goes on an adventure to impress Swift's character, but she has yet to be so wildly wooed in real life outside of "the fan/YouTube section of my life," she said.

“Guys in my life — I don’t think I have a memory of [being impressed like] that. But that’s good! The bar’s really low,” Swift said Sunday at the world premiere of “The Lorax,” her first voice-acting gig.

The film, based on the 1971 children’s book by Dr. Seuss, also sparked a friendship between its lead vocal stars that led to Swift teaching “High School Musical” star Efron to play guitar.

PHOTOS: "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" premiere arrivals

“She’s a great teacher,” Efron said at the Universal CityWalk premiere. “In the past, everyone who’s tried to teach me guitar starts with music theory and stuff like that. I tend to just doze off after a little while. She went straight into songs. She taught me, like, four chords, and I’m already playing all the good campfire songs.”

Co-writer Ken Daurio was just “happier and happier” upon learning of each actor who had signed onto the film, especially Danny DeVito, who voices the title character, a small but formidable mystical creature who speaks for the trees.

The script even went through some changes once DeVito was aboard.

“Once you find out Danny DeVito was going to be the Lorax, it so informs everything you do,” co-writer Cinco Paul said on the premiere's orange carpet, which was lined with replicas of the book's Truffula Trees.

Daurio added, “Once we heard Danny and knew it was going to be him, a lot of the dialogue did change. It just helps you think of what his attitude was going to be — he’s going to have that bite.”

The Lorax's lexicon of insulting nicknames like "beanpole" was written in after DeVito took the part. The actor himself said he embodies "the spirited tenacity of the Lorax. I don't really like to take no for an answer."

"Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" also features the voices of Ed Helms, Betty White and Rob Riggle. The film opens March 2.

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Photo: Zac Efron with the Lorax at the world premiere of "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" at Universal CityWalk on Sunday. Credit: Kevin Winter / Getty Images

‘Wanderlust’: Jennifer Aniston 'Rachel-y,' Paul Rudd 'a goofball'

A mini “Friends” reunion came together with the upcoming comedy “Wanderlust,” which stars Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd — the celebrity alter-egos of Rachel Green and Mike Hannigan, love interest of character Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan.

Their "Wanderlust" costars revealed they have traits akin to the characters they played on the hit sitcom.

"She’s kind of Rachel-y," Jordan Peele said of Aniston at the film's world premiere Thursday.

PHOTOS: 'Wanderlust' premiere

"She's awesome, she's open, she's warm and she's loving. She just pulls you right in — magnetic."

Actress Kerri Kenney-Silver shares a bedroom scene with Rudd in the film about a couple that leaves New York City and stumbles upon a free-love commune called Elysium, where they start a new life. Kenney-Silver said that they filmed about 20 takes of the scene before she was able to get out her lines without Rudd making her laugh.

"He's such a goofball. He's the first one to try to make you to crack up," she said on the red carpet outside the Mann Village Westwood.

Malin Akerman, who plays a member of the commune, said that while acting with Rudd, "It was really hard to keep a straight face. He is such a good improv actor.

"Things would come out of his mouth, and I was like, 'Did you just say that? That’s crazy!'"

The movie was also a reunion for some of the talent behind “Wet Hot American Summer,” a box office flop that launched the careers of several now-successful actors, including Bradley Cooper and Elizabeth Banks. (A real reunion may be coming soon with a sequel in the works.) Kenney-Silver was among the “American Summer” alums in “Wanderlust,” along with Rudd, writer-director David Wain, writer-actor Ken Marino and actor Joe Lo Truglio.

“Any time I get to work with David or Ken or Joe or any of the guys, it’s home,” Kenney-Silver said. “This was the first time really that we were able to incorporate huge movie stars and a huge company and have it feel like it was still home, but we just bumped it up like 10 notches.”

The comedy’s cast members differed a bit in their ideas of what would be the best part of the Elysium lifestyle to bring back to the real world. Akerman said she likes the idea of growing a vegetable garden, but “not the nudist part and sharing of my husband.”

Peele, though, could see the advantages of the nudist lifestyle. "I think nudity is very underrated.... Do you understand how long it took my girlfriend to get ready for today? I would be sitting down in my seat right now if it weren’t for clothing.”

As for what Aniston hopes audiences get out of the movie, she told reporters, “Don’t take yourself so seriously. Live a little bit. Relax!”

“Wanderlust,” which also stars Aniston's new beau, Justin Theroux, and was produced by Judd Apatow, opens in theaters Feb. 24.

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Photo: Producer Judd Apatow, left, Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rudd and Apatow's wife, actress Leslie Mann, at the world premiere of "Wanderlust." Credit: Kevin Winter / Getty Images.

'The Vow' premiere: Making Channing Tatum, Rachel McAdams cry

It's no secret that "The Vow," the romantic drama starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, is a tear-jerker. So what movies cause its stars to get a little emotional?

"I cry at 'Finding Neverland,'" Tatum admitted at the Hollywood premiere of the film Monday evening.

"Oh, yeah. That's a sad one," McAdams agreed, adding that the film that always gets her is "The Way We Were."

PHOTOS: 'The Vow' premiere

"I mean, I woke my sister up [from crying so loud]. She was sleeping while I was watching it and woke up and was, like, 'What's wrong? What's going on here?'"

"The Vow" is sure to induce a few sobbing sessions of its own when it hits theaters Friday. The film is based on the real-life tale of Krickitt Carpenter, a newlywed who got into an automobile accident and lost all memory of her husband, Kim.

The Carpenters, who attended the premiere, said "The Vow" filmmakers spent time studying video interviews of the couple to "nail their personalities."

"The way in which it's done is very moving. I cried," Kim Carpenter said. "Rachel and Channing just did an unbelievable job, and I think their portrayal was just dead on."

Meanwhile, the young women lining Hollywood Boulevard may have been eager to catch a glimpse of Tatum, but we were more excited to catch up with Scott Speedman. That's right, ladies, Ben from "Felicity."

Speedman, who has mostly stuck to independent films since the college soap concluded in 2002, told us he enjoyed playing McAdams' character's jerky ex-fiancé.

"This is my first time in a while I've done a big ... movie," he said. "[Before], I was just wanting to do darker, weirder things, and now I'm trying to do bigger things."

And, we had to ask: Might there be a "Felicity" reunion in the cards? And if so, where would Ben be in his life?

"I thought it'd funny if he was in a darker place," Speedman said of his old character. When the show ended, "he was trying to be a doctor; I think maybe he didn't make it, though."

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Photo: Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams at' "The Vow" premiere Monday at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Credit: Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

‘Mysterious Island’: Kristin Davis wants to pet Josh Hutcherson

The characters in "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" encounter all manner of unusual animals on the film's Jules Verne-inspired island, but the only creature actress Kristin Davis wanted to pet Thursday was costar Josh Hutcherson.

The "Sex and the City" star revealed that she was a big fan of Hutcherson’s performance in "The Kids Are All Right" and said she prepared for playing the 19-year-old's mother by getting tips from Mama Hutcherson herself.

"I talked to Josh's mom. I said, 'I always want to pet him,'" Davis told Ministry of Gossip at the film’s L.A. premiere Thursday at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. "She said, 'You can’t really touch them when they get to this age, 'cause they feel like you're making them like a kid.' ... In the movie I had to scold him. But I felt bad because Josh is such a mature young man."

The family adventure movie, a sequel to 2008’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” takes 17-year-old Sean (Hutcherson) and his stepfather (Dwayne Johnson) to a mystical island in search of Sean’s grandfather (played by Michael Caine).

In preparation for filming underwater scenes, Hutcherson and Johnson got scuba-diving certification.

"I've always wanted to get scuba certified, and this was a great excuse, and I didn't have to pay for it!": said Hutcherson, who will next be seen in the much-anticipated "The Hunger Games" in March.

Johnson, a.k.a. "The Rock," may be most recognized for his wrestling career and tough-guy roles in movies like last year’s "Fast Five," but Hutcherson busted that stereotype.

"He's fun, he's charismatic, he's outgoing. He has a sensitive side," the actor told reporters. "But he’s also very physical and has the whole action hero side as well."

Luis Guzmán, who plays the helicopter pilot who takes Sean and his stepfather to the Mysterious Island, said of Johnson, "He is the man. I'd work with Dwayne any day of the week. He certainly made an action hero out of me. I'm just waiting for my action figure to come out."

"Journey 2" brought Johnson home to Hawaii, where he grew up, a location that costar Vanessa Hudgens took plenty of time to enjoy.

"The adventures I got to have in my downtime –- I would take my car and drive around, go to the North Shore, hang out, check out the waves, go on a bunch of dives cause I'm certified," Hudgens said of filming on Oahu. "I'm such an adventurer, and I love being on the island."

"Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” hits theaters Feb. 10.

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Photo: Kristin Davis and Josh Hutcherson at the L.A. premiere of "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island." Credit: Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Jon Cryer: 'I didn't expect to still be on a show,' he says

Jon Cryer needs a better game plan when it comes to compliments, he noted on the red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday.

When it comes to the things that other actors tell him, "I forget all of the compliments, and it's really unfortunate," he said, "because when I'm riddled with self-doubt, those would really be handy."

However, getting fired from his first job did gives him strength, he said, after an industry acquaintance told him, "I don't respect anybody who hasn't been fired at least once."

PHOTOS: 2012 SAG Awards red carpet arrivals

"I really took that to heart, because it's a business that's very silly and you just cannot take it personally and that's been a great source of confidence for me, oddly, that ... you'll get the parts you're right for."

His SAG nomination for outstanding performance by a male actor in a comedy -- the award went to Alec Baldwin for "30 Rock" -- was a first for the "Two and a Half Men" star.

"I can't say this is where I expected to be ... I didn't expect to still be on a show. ... But for an actor, that's kind of life anyway. ... You get used to rolling with the punches."

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Photo: Jon Cryer and wife Lisa Joyner on the red carpet at the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

SAG Awards 2012: Viola Davis loves being an actor's inspiration

Viola Davis knew one thing for certain on the Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet: The thing she loves to hear most from another actor.

" '[Y]ou inspire me.' "

"I love that, I love that word," said "The Help" star Davis, who won the Actor for female in a leading film role later in the evening. "Because so often actors are not inspired. So many leave the profession. And it's always inspiration that keeps you in, that keeps you motivated and lets you know that you're on the right path."

PHOTOS: SAG Awards 2012 red carpet arrivals

"I love when actors say that to me."

Perhaps her win Sunday night will be even more of an inspiration.

 

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Mary Tyler Moore had Dick Van Dyke a little nervous [Video]

 

For Dick Van Dyke, who presented a lifetime achievement award to Mary Tyler Moore on Sunday night, one compliment stands out among his decades of accolades.

"[M]y idol, Stan Laurel, said that he would like me to play him in his life story, and that was the biggest kick I ever had," Van Dyke said Sunday at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where he planned to "ad lib a lot" in presenting Moore's award.

Turns out getting that presenter gig was more nerve-racking than he might've imagined.

PHOTOS: Mary Tyler Moore's career in pictures

"I didn't realize that the person gets to pick the presenter, and I said, 'Well, she has to pick me.' But," he noted with a smile, "she took a couple of weeks, and it had me chewing my nails."

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SAG Awards 2012: Christopher Plummer's ready to get back to work

All the awards hoopla has taken its toll on Screen Actors Guild Award nominee Christopher Plummer. The actor is SAG Award nominated for his role in "Beginners," as a father who comes out as gay late in his life -- but all the time shuffling down the various red carpets of the awards season means less time on the set.

"I'm thrilled and I'm exhausted," the 82-year-old actor said Sunday before the show. "I'd rather be working. Working is so much easier than the awards."

But Plummer isn't complaining. All the recognition for the role has translated into a lot of offers for the veteran actor -- "offers of quality."

PHOTOS: SAG Awards 2012 red carpet arrivals

"I've never worked so much in my life ... it's keeping me extremely young."

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Photo: Christopher Plummer at the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday. Credit: Matt Sayles / Associated Press

 

‘Man on a Ledge’: Sam Worthington a ‘pussycat’ in real life

"Man on a Ledge" star Sam Worthington should be pretty accustomed to working with green screen by now, after "Avatar" and "Terminator: Salvation," but the comforts of a visual-effects-ready backlot stage were not an option for the Aussie star this last time around.

Going out on a ledge isn't a figure of speech here: The actor literally spent several days filming on the ledge of a New York building, about 200 feet above ground. The actor and filmmakers chalked the decision up to savvy audiences who can tell when CGI has created an artificial background.

"I think sometimes an audience demands a certain authenticity. People actually knowing that I'm up there 200-odd feet in the air adds to the thrilling aspect of it," Worthington told the Ministry of Gossip at the film's L.A. premiere Monday at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

PHOTOS: 'Man on a Ledge' black carpet arrivals

It's Worthington's character who does most of the high-up dancing with death, but others involved with the movie got to give it a try, too, including Anthony Mackie and Ed Burns. Actor Titus Welliver, who plays an NYPD officer in the movie, wasn't feeling quite as adventurous.

"I was offered the opportunity, and I flatly refused because even when I would watch Sam when I was on the ground, when he was on the ledge, it would make my hands perspire. It made me so nervous," Welliver said.

Worthington started the film with a fear of heights but eventually found that "you get comfortable out there when your confidence builds."

Director Asger Leth and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura both walked out onto the ledge.

"The director and I both said, 'If we're going to ask our actors to go there, we're going to out there, too,'" Di Bonaventura said.

The producer said aside from testing out the ledge for Worthington, the most daring thing he's done from far off the ground was climbing on Yosemite's Cathedral Rocks. Leth revealed he had a "scary" experience at about 14,000 feet in Argentina’s mountains shooting a commercial for Guinness.

But Worthington had no tales of daring feats to regale reporters with.

"Trust me -- in real life I’m a pussycat," he said. "I stay at home, make scrambled eggs, watch 'Law and Order,' pretty normal stuff. I only do crazy stuff in the film."

Summit Entertainment's "Man on a Ledge" hits theaters Friday. The thriller also stars Elizabeth Banks, Ed Harris and Jamie Bell.

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 Photo: Sam Worthington at the L.A. premiere of "Man on a Ledge" with Crystal Umphrey. Credit: Matt Sayles / Associated Press

'Underworld: Awakening': Kate Beckinsale likes it skin-tight

The "Underworld" franchise hit theaters nearly a decade ago, in 2003, and though its star, Kate Beckinsale, is now 38, she's continued to play an ageless vampire, most recently in "Underworld: Awakening," which premiered Thursday.

As the vampire Selene, she’s still kicking butt in a skin-tight leather costume, which may not seem the easiest task in an action- and stunt-filled movie. "Actually, it’s a costume I really liked," Beckinsale revealed at the film's Grauman's Chinese Theatre premiere.

She also told the Insider recently, "I remember the first movie I did, I was very intimidated by the costume. I trust it now. Actually, it gives you a little bit of help, if anything."

PICTURES: 'Underworld: Awakening' red carpet arrivals

"Underworld: Awakening" features some characters new to the franchise, played by "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" young star India Eisley and Michael Ealy, who with "Awakening" gets to show off his action chops for the first time since the Paul Walker-starring "Takers." Both actors shared positive experiences from working with Beckinsale.

"She's very funny, and she knows how to have fun on set between takes, and I think that's something that's important with something that's obviously dark," Eisley told Ministry of Gossip.

Ealy told reporters, "Working with Kate is as fun as it is to hang out with her. She's so ..." — the actor glanced sideways at his publicist before deciding how to word his answer, which fell just on the other side of publishable — "[very] cool."

“Underworld: Awakening,” the fourth film in the vampires-versus-lycans series, opens in theaters Friday and is expected to sink its teeth deep into this weekend’s box office sales.

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Photo: Kate Beckinsale at the world premiere of "Underworld: Awakening." Credit: Matt Sayles / Associated Press.