Jared Leto Is Stressed About His Potential Oscar Speech

Despite a torrential downpour and flash flood warnings in L.A. on Friday evening, Jared Leto hit the ground running, in fancy black-and-white shiny shoes with a red sole. The Oscar-favorite spoke to The Huffington Post at LA Confidential’s annual Oscar event, which this year honored Leto, who graces the magazine’s Spring Issuewith wide-open eyes and his signature silky long locks.

Dressed like the rock star that he is in all black, Leto laughed when he saw the giant blow-up of his magazine cover. “I’ve never seen my head so big. Only on the inside,” he joked.

Leto first heard the announcement of his “Dallas Buyers Club” Best Supporting Actor nomination at 5 in the morning but didn’t share the news right away. “Oh I didn’t call anybody. Didn’t want to wake anyone up,” he said.

He’s might be a man of few words, but his performance as Rayon in “Dallas Buyers Club” is nothing short of brilliant. And playing a transgender woman has certainly brought a spotlight to the community. “It’s been wonderful and supportive and generous -- from the very beginning when I started research and preparation for the role,” Leto told HuffPost.

He described being nominated for the film as “truly mind-blowing” and “a thrill," but clarified that there’s some anxiety involved. “It’s a great time to stress out about what you’re going to say for 45 seconds,” Leto said, musing about his potential acceptance speech. Luckily, Leto will have more than enough support at the awards Sunday -- he's bringing his mother and BROTHER as his dates. “It’s the whole family. And that’s just a dream. I couldn’t think of a better way to do it.” Leto said.

Staring directly into the actor’s electric blue eyes causes one to consider to a certain theory that Leto does not age (Google images of Leto in 1994 and 2014). Unfortunately, HuffPost could not confirm with the 42-year-old the validity of whether or not he is in fact the real life Dorian Gray. “I don’t know. I have no idea,” said Leto. “But I’m sure happy to be alive.”

There might not be an aging painting of Jared Leto locked away in his house, but based on reputable Oscar predictions, there likely will soon be a little gold man in its place.

“Dallas Buyers Club” is nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor for Matthew McConaughey and Best Original Screenplay. This is Leto’s first Academy Award nomination.

Chris Brown Due Back In DC Court For Plea Hearing On Assault Charge

Singer Chris Brown is scheduled to appear in a District of Columbia court for what would be a third attempt at a plea deal to resolve an assault case that dates to October 2013.

According to court filings, Brown was scheduled to appear in D.C. Superior Court on Friday for a plea hearing but was unable due to travel issues. The hearing was rescheduled for Tuesday at 9 a.m.

Bill Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney, confirmed Brown is due in court. But he declined to comment on the case.

In January and June, Brown rejected plea deals on a misdemeanor assault charge. At the time of the incident, Brown was on probation in California for a 2009 attack on his then-girlfriend singer Rihanna.

Brown’s attorney, Stuart Sears, declined to comment on the case.

Lawyer: Tracy Morgan Struggling To Recover After June Crash

An attorney for Tracy Morgan says the former “Saturday Night Live” actor is having a tough time recovering from a June accident on the New Jersey Turnpike that left a fellow comedian dead.

Attorney Benedict Morelli tells The Star-Ledger newspaper that Morgan relies on a wheelchair and it may be months before he can fully walk again. Morelli says Morgan appears to be making progress, but it will be a month before he is assessed “cognitively.”

Morgan broke his leg, nose and several ribs in a six-car accident involving his limo bus, and comedian James McNair was killed. The bus was struck by a Wal-Mart truck.

The truck driver has pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide and assault by auto.

Morgan accused Wal-Mart of negligence in a federal lawsuit.

11 Celeb Secrets Spilled by Bodyguards

• underwear," he once said. "I can name all the moles on her body, that’s how many times I’ve seen her undressed."
• Mary-Kate Olsen is another celeb who doesn't think twice about stripping down in front of the help, according to one ex-bodyguard. "When she buys a new outfit, she hops into the backseat and takes off all her clothes to put it on" in full view of the rearview mirror, he once said. "It makes her guards uncomfortable, but they just have to deal with it."

• Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt "go through bodyguards like crazy," a source once said, and bodyguards have spilled details like Jolie's tantrums whenever Jennifer Aniston called ... and her tendency to throw knives at the wall during arguments.
• Julia Roberts and Danny Moder are "grunge all the way," says one ex-employee, and that means the "pretty woman" often goes "days without showering. ... She likes the smell of her natural oils."
• A former employee of Pink's said in 2008 that the singer loved to "pound drinks, often without mixers," and would then often fall asleep ... including once when she passed out in a chair at the Playboy Mansion.
• According to one of her former bodyguards, Paris Hilton has sticky fingers. "Paris use to grab jackets, jewelry, shoes—anything that wasn’t nailed to the floor," he once said. "At a party in the Hollywood Hills, she asked me to put a pair of shoes she liked in my jacket and walk out with them."

Mind Blown: 40 Final Fantasy Secrets & Facts

The Final Fantasy series is an interesting one. While originally intended to be a one-off title with no sequels or franchisal development, Final Fantasy's success revitalized the interest of Square's main planner, Hironobu Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi went on to sell over 100 million units of video games in his career and stayed with the company until 2004, when he resigned from the newly-merged Square Enix and formed his own development team: Mistwalker. 

    Final Fantasy has and is succeeding to an immense degree. While the series has suffered through some low points, there are very few blemishes worthy of remembrance. The number of triumphs Final Fantasy has seen trumps nearly every other game franchise in existence, which is why we decided to craft this list. We've compiled a number of cool, interesting facts that you may not have known about the series.

    Take a look!

Vigil Team Leaves Crytek, Forms New Studio, Darksiders 3 Possible

David Adams and the original members of Vigil Games, known for their work on the Darksiders franchise, have all resigned from Crytek USA and have gone on to make their own independent studio, Gunfire Games.

Polygon reports that many key members of Crytek USA have quit the studio and have formed their own development team. These developers include Vigil Games founder and the head of Crytek USA, David Adams, along with many of Vigil Games’ original members. Vigil Games released Darksiders in 2010 and Darksiders 2 in 2012. The THQ bankruptcy led to Vigil Games being one of the unfortunate studios to collapse (THQ purchased Vigil Games a few years prior), until Crytek scooped them up and designated Adams and his team at Austin, TX the newest branch of Crytek, Crytek USA.

Unfortunately, Crytek has been suffering many financial troubles, with many employees from its multiple studios reporting late and unpaid wages. Adams and his core team have decided to quit the company and form their own group, Gunfire Games, just 18 months after joining Crytek.

“I decided and resigned that same day,” Adams said. “Forming another independent studio was something that I thought about because of what was going on.”

“It got to the point where people were starting to leave.”

Adams remains adamant that leaving was the group decision of his team.

“It really was the team,” Adams  said. “When you make a game, one of the most important elements of that is the people you work with. You could get 12 of the best developers in the world and put them into a room and they may not make a good game.”

We wholeheartedly agree with Adam’s statement. Crytek USA had nearly 50 employees and has dropped down to less than 25 after Guzenda, Adams and their team left. Many others have been laid off in the meantime.

“We have seven people, all of the leads at Crytek USA,” said Matt Guzenda, studio director of Gunfire Games. “We’re still working on the next round of guys coming around.”

Guzenda laments leaving Crytek USA’s Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age in the middle of its development. He even mentions that it was one of the only things that inclined the team to stay, next to the other employees who weren’t planning on leaving.

“I think that was the reason it took us so long to make that decision,” he said. “It was the right decision to make. But we had to decide if we wanted to walk away from [Hunt].”

“We’re more attached to the team than the IP. We can always make another IP,” Guzenda said. “We walked away from them [Crytek], not the other way around.”

Adams mentioned that Crytek did not regularly communicate with them to let them know what was happening with the company, which coincides with the reports of poor communication when it came to need-to-know information from the company HQ in Frankfurt, Germany.

“It’s the same thing that happened at THQ, but at least at THQ we finished Darksiders 2. In our heads there was a Darksiders 3, and we never got to make that,” Adams added.

Adams mentioned that Gunfire Games has been speaking with Nordic Games, the current owners of the Darksiders IP, in regards to having a third title made. They have also been speaking with multiple other publishers to see what kind of work they can get. Gunfire Games is seeking to create its own original IP and to work on an established one, preferably Darksiders. Here’s to hoping Adams and Guzenda are able to make both of these things happen.

‘Walking Dead’ Actress Shannon Richardson Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison for Mailing Ricin Letters

Shannon Richardson, a 36-year-old actress from Texas, was given the maximum sentence of 18 years in jail under her plea deal on a charge of possessing and producing a biological toxin. She has also been ordered to pay $367,000 in restitution.

CBS News reports that Richardson, who had minor roles on TV’s ‘The Walking Dead’ and the Sandra Bullock movie ‘The Blind Side,’ was arrested last June for sending letters with the deadly toxin ricin to President Obama and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Richardson pleaded guilty last December.

“I never intended for anybody to be hurt,” she told the court. “I’m not a bad person. I don’t have it in me to hurt anyone.”

Richardson reportedly mailed the letters and then went to police to claim that her estranged husband, Nathan Richardson, was responsible for mailing them. However, inconsistencies with her story, as well as an investigation into her online purchases, led to Richardson’s arrest. The investigation revealed that she had made purchases for the materials required to make ricin online.

She later confessed that she lied to authorities about her husband’s involvement.

11 GREATEST HORROR GAMES YOU’VE NEVER PLAYED

Sure, most of us have played a horror game or two. But, for every big-budget bruiser like Silent Hill or indie darling like Slender there are half a dozen great, scary games that slip through the cracks, like these 11 Greatest Horror Games You’ve Never Played. Time to change that. We slipped under the floorboards to catch those forgotten bits of horror as they fell, which is we’re bringing you the 11 Greatest Horror Games You’ve Never Played.

11

Friday the 13th

NES

 

 

In an era where most games were kid-friendly affairs, the makers of the gory Friday the 13th series licensed their mature-audiences title out into an NES game, and the results were strangely effective in eliciting fear from its players. Even now, Friday the 13th remains one of the more effectively scary games out there, which is why it just had to be included on this list of the 11 Greatest Horror Games You've Never Played.

 

10

Lone Survivor

PC, PS3

 

 

Lone Survivor makes use of many tropes that have helped survival horror become the beloved genre it is today — things like ever-present danger, dwindling supplies, and the threat of the unknown. This 16-bit style title may seem like something from two decades ago, but its brilliance is definitely ahead of its time.

 

9

Alone in the Dark

PC

 

 

As one of the earliest survival horror games to hit the scene, Alone in the Dark's aesthetics haven't exactly aged gracefully, but there's still an undeniable effectiveness to the terror lurking in every corner of this Lovecraftian scarefest.

 

8

Home

PC

 

 

Home may technically qualify as a video game, but in spirit it's more akin to a Choose Your Own Adventure, complete with branching story elements and a narrative the player takes an active part in constructing... which makes the horror that much more disturbing.

 

7

Yume Nikki

PC

 

 

Yume Nikki. Strange. Minimalist. Free. If you like your horror to be more existential than in-your-face, this bizarrely brilliant game is definitely for you.

 

6

The Path

PC

 

 

Another art-piece-turned game, The Path is one of the few games that punishes the player for exploring, i.e. straying from the path. The more you stray, the more you'll discover. And the more it'll cost you.

 

5

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

PC

 

 

Based on Harlan Ellison's classic sci-fi short story of the same name, this post-apocalyptic point-and-click tasks you with surviving the malicious machinations of a bored supercomputer who, after having destroyed the world, got bored and took to torturing the scattered remnants of humanity. No wonder it made our list of the 11 Greatest Horror Games You've Never Played.

 

4

Illbleed

Dreamcast

 

 

This ill-fated (and ill-named) Dreamcast title pits you as the genre-savvy hero of a horror story gone awry. Insane lumberjacks, robots disguised as humans disguised as robots, and Zodick the Hedgehog are but a few of the freaky sights you'll find in this pulse-pounder.

 

3

Sweet Home

Famicom

 

 

Sweet Home, a role-playing game for the original Famicom, comes jam-packed with all kinds of scary crap made all the more scary by the 8-bit system's limitations. Thanks to some unsanctioned translations, many fans have given this forgotten title new life by rendering it readable for Western audiences.

 

2

Clock Tower

SNES, PC, Playstation

 

 

Before there was Slenderman, there was Scissor Man, whose name varies from sequel to sequel, but whose methods of terror remain the same: dude carries around a huge-ass pair of scissors and wants to take a little off the top... of your body.

 

1

System Shock 2

PC

 

 

Remember how friggin' chilling some parts of the first Bioshock were? As the direct progenitor to Bioshock, System Shock 2 contains much of what made that title such a break-out hit; interesting combat and character customization, thoughtful writing, and a pervasive sense of dread. All this adds up to being our #1 pick in our list of 11 Greatest Horror Games You've Never Played.

 

Lady Gaga

Being Mother Monster is not without its hazards. Lady Gaga landed herself in the hospital in Denver for altitude sickness following her latest stop on her ArtRave tour. And of course she posted about it on Instagram. Because of course.

I have a real problem with hospital selfies. IMO, on the scale of tackiness, they rank just below a funeral selfie and just above un-ironically using the hashtag #blessed. Why, if you’re well enough to be selecting a filter, do you really need to be in the ER? But I’m sure I’m just being cynical, my dears–you know Gaga would never dream of exaggerating something minor just for attention…

Do you think that LG needs to scale back her tour schedule–or at least stick to lower altitudes? Or do you think she was secretly all too eager to receive a little public pity?