Austin Mahone must have been on cloud nine at the Billboard Music Awards on May 19, because before he even got into the show to present an award, Selena Gomez asked him out to dinner!
A behind-the-scenes video captured the whole moment. Austin and Selena bump into each other on the carpet and hug and exchange the usual pleasantries, and then Selena drops the bomb. “I guess we’re having dinner together tonight,” she says excitedly.
This awesome dinner date appears to be news to Austin and totally catches him off guard. “Oh yeah,” he asks. “Sounds good. I’ll see you there.” Even he, the big Youtube sensation, seems a little starstruck by Selena!
The dinner ended up being less of a date and more of a group thing, as Taylor Swift told Billboard.com that after the award show she, Selena, Austin and many more hit up Nobu for a fun meal. “We had a giant dinner at Nobu for all my bandmates, dancers, and friends,” Tay Tay said. “It seemed like everyone was there. Ed [Sheeran], Selena, Austin Mahone… We were all just laughing together and rejoicing in a really fun evening.”
Austin opened for Taylor during her “Red” tour, so it’s likely that Taylor was the one who set up the dinner, Selena was just the messenger.
Either way, Austin’s definitely part of the crew now (or the “A Team,” if you ask Ed Sheeran) — he must be thrilled. What do you think of Austin and Selena’s encounter? Watch it below (fast-forward to about 0:41)!
Having ditched his teen heart-throb status and established himself as one of the world’s leading character actors, Leonardo Dicaprio’s starring role in The Great Gatsby is the cinematic event of the year. He talks GQ Australia through his inspirations, aspirations and the immersive power of filming in 3D.
Talk about a wild ride. Baz Luhrmann, Australia’s larger-than-life director, was first linked to The Great Gatsby as far back as 2008. It was a risky idea – giving the keys to the Great American Novel to the man who made Ewan McGregor sing Elton John and put a plus sign between Romeo and Juliet. But the conceit was too wild to ignore and the project became a serious talent magnet. Amanda Seyfried, Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman were all talked about for the role of Daisy Buchanan, a sometimes-cynical socialite and the object of Jay Gatsby’s affections (Carey Mulligan eventually won the derby). Intending to shoot in New York, Luhrmann even re-located his family to the States in 2010.
But nothing is ever as it seems in the land of Baz, and as the production was inching towards the start line, The Great Gatsby shifted back to Sydney. The new schedule forced Ben Affleck to relinquish a pivotal role. Then came reports that Luhrmann was considering shooting in (wait for it) 3D. The Great Gatsby was budgeted at US$125m, with filming to begin in September 2011. A December 2012 release date came and went, and reports surfaced that Luhrmann was personally trying to raise cash to finance re-shoots. When pressed to explain the delay last year, Luhrmann told New York magazine, cryptically: “I’m just very nourished by just working on it. I’m just thrilled.” The man just protest too much? When the magazine pressed him further on the delay, he said, “Right now I’m working on music. You can imagine how involved I am in the music alone.” Which brings us to the most unlikely element of his take on The Great Gatsby: a score by Jay-Z, with contributions by Kanye West, Jack White and even a Beyoncé cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black.”
Throughout this circus, the one thing that seemed to make sense about Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby was the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role, a mysterious bachelor who lives in a mansion on Long Island and famous for the revelry that surrounds him. And yet, this is exactly the kind of role 38-year-old DiCaprio has been running from in recent years. Blond and absurdly handsome, he’s intent on reminding viewers that he’s a character actor trapped in the chassis of a leading man. He once called Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle his professional “wet dream”, and it wasn’t idle chit-chat – just look at his CV. Last year, DiCaprio played the villainous Calvin Candie in Django Unchained, with rotten teeth and loose morals – looking like he was having the time of his life. He played FBI director J Edgar Hoover (the most feared man of his time) for Clint Eastwood. Even in Revolutionary Road, DiCaprio subverted his image, playing a Norman Rockwell-era suburban hero trapped in a waking nightmare, as the promise of his birth proved to be one big disappointment.
But you can only run from fate for so long. DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby? It’s like two icons from across time shaking hands. Talking to DiCaprio today, with the film finally about to open in cinemas, it’s clear he found it a daunting prospect. “To take on this iconic character is not an easy thing to wrap your head around,” he says, slowly and deliberately. “The Great Gatsby is sewn into the fabric of the American Dream. To fall flat on your face trying to interpret this novel in the right way is scary.” He knows, after all, that casting is only half the battle; even a 1974 version featuring Robert Redford couldn’t get it right. “I remember watching that movie in high school. I loved Redford’s performance but I don’t know how I felt about the film. There have been five interpretations of Gatsby through the years, going all the way back to the ’30s.” He pauses, formulating a diplomatic way to point out that none of them quite nailed it. “I thought there was a way to take it on again.” There is. But with 3D glasses?
For DiCaprio, the road to Gatsby started 20 years ago. As a fresh-faced child actor, he flew to Australia to test for the lead in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, which re-imagined Shakespeare’s tragedy as a Venice Beach fever dream. “Oh boy,” he says of that first trip. “I remember being there for about a week and I had my first scuba-diving experience on the Great Barrier Reef. I remember entering an entire Dr Seuss world. I hadn’t seen anything like that and it’s burned into my imagination forever.”
Read the full article in GQ's June.July 2013 issue.
The porn star lashed out against the father of her twin boys on the social media site, after he was granted primary custody of their children earlier this month.
