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Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer and Alan Ball added a playlist of their favorite music to Itunes and commented on every track they chose. Check out the lists by clicking here.

Anna Paquin’s Itunes Playlist

1. Such Great Height by Iron & Wine: “The words to this song, particularly the opening really capture what being in love feels like to me.”
2. Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin: “I was probably 5 or 6 when I learned how to use our record player and started listening to my parents’ Janis Joplin LP obsessively.”
3. White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes: “My boyfriend got me hooked on Fleet Foxes and through this song.”
4. Parting Gift by Fiona Apple: “Fiona writes about the female experience in such a beautiful and insightful way. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a mood that there isn’t a song of hers to match.”
5. Extraordinary Machine by Fiona Apple: “I saw her in concert and arrived just in time for this song. It just makes me so happy!”
6. My Iron Lung by Radiohead: “This album makes me think of my sister.”
7. Closer by Nine Inche Nails: “This one goes out to ‘sad little goth girls’ everywhere.”
8. Ur So Gay by Kate Perry:”I listened to this song every morning on repeat when I was in Latvia last year working. For some reason it helped me wake up.”
9. Here Comes You Man by Pixies: “Great band, great song.”
10. Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) by Beyoncé: “How can you not love this song? It makes me wanna dance every time I hear it.”
11. Bathtime In Clerkenwell by The Real Tuesday Weld: “Music to run to.”
12. Over The Hill And Far Away by Led Zeppelin: “I’ve gotta credit Cameron Crowe with getting me heavily into Led Zeppelin.”
13. Glory Box by Portishead: “I have some crazy/cool memories associated with this whole album.”
14. I’m Shipping Up to Boston by Dropkick Murphys: “Music to box to! (Yes, Clay Burwell I’m talking to you!)”
15. Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley: “I love this song but not as much as I love my boyfriend’s cover on his ukulele. He has an extraordinary voice.”

Stephen Moyer’s Itunes Playlist

1. English Rose by The Jam: “Wellers simply lyrics and the descending chromatic kill me and transport me back to my 13 year old mod self.”
2. Stool Pidgeon Blues by Lightnin’ Hopkins: “I found this aged about 9 or 10 in my Dad’s record collection. I was blown away by it. I remember so vividly placing the arm back on the vinyl over and over again for days and months. The solo is incredible.”
3. Cucurrucucu Paloma by Caetano Veloso: “When my daughter was born this is what I was listening to. It transfers me right back to that magical time. His voice is just beautiful.”
4. Tango Till They’re Sore by Tom Waits: “Could have filled this entire playlist with Tom Waits…might have been a hundred other track. Today it’s this one…”
5. Ahoy There! by Mr. Scruff:” My son and I know this forward backwards and sideways. We sing it in the car all the time, reminds me of my gorgeous funny boy.”
6. Pencil Rot by Stephen Malkmus: “I am one of the geeks that sit twidding my thumbs waiting for new Malkmus tracks to become available. This is mad and brilliant. It’ll stay twirling in your head forever.”
7. You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go by Bob Dylan: “Makes me think of traveling on buses and trains through Thailand with my cassette walkman.. ‘when something isn’t right it’s wrong…’ … it’s full of great lines.”
8. That’s All I Wanna Do by Graham Coxon: “Just love this track.. A great unrequited yearning pavement-esque love song.”
9. Dazed and Confused by Led Zeppelin: “From the opening slow bass lick through to the moment that the band explodes is still is one of the great visceral rock and roll songs. (I spent more time deciding which led zep song than any other in this list.)”
10. I Cover the Waterfront by Billie Holiday: “This recording is late on and almost tragic as she searches for the opening note or even which song it is… but it makes it all the more poignant for me.”
11. Vete de Mi by Bebo & Cigala: “Rehearsing for a film in Switzerland, the director Daniel Schmid and actor Edoardo Noriega waltzed around the space singing this song in preparation for the film.”
12. Stuck In a Tight Spot by Clor: “There’s an EP and on album available from these guys. They are amazing. The middle eight from this is fantastic.”
13. White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes: “Everyone in our house knows the lyrics to this song, my girlfriend, the kids, the dog…”
14. (Nice Dream) by Christopher O’Riley: “This is where you kick back and put your feet up and smoke your pipe in wonderment… Radioheads genius coupled with O’Rileys wonderfully fluent playing.”

Alan Ball’s Itunes Playlist

1. Bad Things (Theme from “True Blood) by Jace Everett: ” We used this song as a temporary main title on the True Blood pilot, a placeholder while we looked for something else, but nothing worked as well, because this song and Jace’s performance of it are, well, perfect.”
2. Round the Bend by Beck: ” Once after a knee surgery, i took a vicodin the doctor had prescribed and chased it with a glass of red wine, and about half an hour later I felt all sensation draining out of my body. This song, aside from being gorgeous, reminds me of that feeling.”
3. Mezzanine by Massive Attack: “Hypnotic, dark, and unsettling. Who doesn’t love that?”
4. Love Shack by The B-52′s: “I’m from Georgia like the B-52′s, and this song never fails to make me happy.”
5. O Magnum Mysterium by Robert Shaw & Robert Shaw Chamber Singers: “I play this when I’m really stressed, and it always helps me to calm down and put whatever is stressing me out into perspective. Plus it makes me feel all, like, tragic and redeemed, and heroic.”
6. I Will Follow (2005 Live from Milan) by U2: “I used to play this on my Walkman when I ran, and now I have knee issues. Thanks a lot, U2!”
7. New Coat of Paint  by Tom Waits: “How great is Tom Waits? A genius songwriter, with one of the most expressive voices ever.”
8. Over the Rainbow by Keith Jarrett: “This song is a melodic masterpiece – yes, I am gay – and this is a profoundly emotional interpretation that never ceases to move me.”
9. Back to Life (However Do You Want Me) [One World Remix] by Soul II Soul: “This song reminds me of summer night parties in back yards in Brooklyn, back before I moved to Hollywood and sold my soul.”
10. The Very Thought of You by Nat “King” Cole: “Everything about this recording is lush – the melody, his voice, the arrangement. It’s like taking a hot bath in a fur bathtub. With vicodin and red wine.”
11. Save It For Later by The English Beat: “This song still makes me want to dance, even with my bad knees. Thanks, English Beat.”
12. Parrel Life by The Starseeds: “You know that music they play in upscale boutiques, hotels, restaurants, etc., to make you feel really hip and good about yourself so you’ll spend money? This is one of my favorite examples of that kind of music.”
13. Don’t Dream It’s Over by Crowded House: “When I moved from Florida to New York in 1986, I drove for two days in someone else’s car. This song was a big hit at the time, and every radio station played it around the clock, so it always reminds me of that trip, which included a stop at the world famous Natural Bridge in Virginia.”
14 Conservative, Christian, Right-Wing Republican, Straight, White, American Males by Todd Snider: “I discovered Todd Snider while trolling ITunes for songs to put in a True Blood script, and now he is my personal hero.”

Anna Paquin is featured as Fun Fearless Female in this month’s issue of Cosmo.

Hometown: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (Although she grew up in New Zealand)
Current gig: Starring as Sookie Stackhouse on HBO’s TRUE BLOOD
Age: 26
Romantic Status: Dating her costar Stephen Moyer

Most actresses begin their careers by struggling in small parts. Anna Paquin kicked hers off by winning an Oscar at age 11 for The Piano. Since then, she has appeared in films like Amistad and Almost Famous and as Rogue in the Xmen series. The uncensored actress most recently has sunk her teeth into one of the sexiest roles on television.

Cosmo: What do you say to people who think True Blood is too sexy?
Anna: Well, maybe they’re not having enough sex [laughs]. People don’t want to watch what they’re not having!

Cosmo: Why do you think we’re all so obsessed with vampires?
Anna: They’re usually portrayed as extraordinarily sexy. They’re forbidden and dangerous and exciting.

Cosmo: You’re a natural brunette. Are you treated differently as a blonde?
Anna: Yeah, they died my hair for the show. The blonds-getting-more-attention think is completely true. I don’t know why; it just is.

Cosmo: Is there anything you wish guys understood about women?
Anna: No, because then they’d be girls. It would take away half of what women talk about. What’s so endearing about boys is that they’re so different from us– we’re not all wired the same.

Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer were spotted recently hanging out with Lamar Odom player for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Alex Harris, Stephen Moyer, Lamar Odom, Anna Paquin

Director Kenneth Lonergan shot the movie “Margaret” , starring Anna Paquin, in 2005 in less than three months. Three years later the film still hasn’t made it out of the editing room.

An article on the Los Angeles Times tells us why.

Kenneth Lonergan’s ‘Margaret’: post-production in a courtroom by John Horn

Scene from "Margaret" Anna Paquin and Allison Janney

“You Can Count on Me” was the kind of Hollywood arrival that every aspiring filmmaker dreams about.

Kenneth Lonergan’s 2000 directorial debut about two siblings’ splintered relationship was a solid art-house hit, the film helped launch the career of costar Mark Ruffalo and was nominated for two Academy Awards — lead actress for Laura Linney and original screenplay for Lonergan.

It was hardly surprising, then, that in early 2005 Fox Searchlight and financier Gary Gilbert (“Garden State”) were eager to back Lonergan’s second turn behind the camera, deciding to co-finance his complex account of a young girl’s grappling with guilt and adolescence, “Margaret.”

But although “You Can Count on Me” seemed blessed at almost every turn, “Margaret” has turned into a nightmarish production that has devolved into a bitter court fight. Despite “Margaret’s” initial promise, it is now uncertain when Lonergan’s movie, which was filmed more than three years ago, will ever make it to theaters.

Movie studio shelves are filled with troubled projects that have been put on hold for any number of reasons, but rarely do they involve someone of Lonergan’s standing working with such quality actors (“Margaret’s” cast includes Ruffalo, Matt Damon and Anna Paquin) and an all-star producing team of Oscar winners — Scott Rudin ( “No Country for Old Men”) and the late Sydney Pollack (“Out of Africa”).

More unusual still is why, according to one of the film’s two lawsuits, “Margaret” hasn’t come out: Lonergan can’t finish the film.

Because of the litigation and a confidentiality agreement among the lawyers, all of the principals central to the film declined to be interviewed for this story. But conversations with a dozen people close to or familiar with the production, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, painted a picture of an endless post-production cycle that left Lonergan and Gilbert clashing and Fox Searchlight sitting on what might be an unreleasable movie.

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A little reminder for all of you that “The Courgeous Heart Of Irena Sendler“, starring Anna Paquin will air tonight April 19 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, recounts the inspiring true story of Irena Sendler who helped save the lives of 2,500 Jewish babies and young children in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.

Academy Award winner Anna Paquin plays the title role; another Academy Award winner, Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock, In From the Night), plays her mother, Janina. Goran Visnjic (ER) is Stefan, a friend from Irena’s university days who helps Irena and her underground network map out strategies and routes to smuggle the children out of the ghetto.

Anna Paquin in a scene from "The Courageous Heart Of Irena Sendler"

Right after the Paley Fest last Monday night, three of the Billsbabes who were present at the event dashed off to the Arclight bathroom to exchange their “Billsbabe” t-shirt for an outfit more appropriate for the attendance of a movie premiere. A taxi brought them to the theatre where the premiere screening of Anna Paquin’s latest movie “The Courageous Heart Of Irena Sendler” was taking place.

The Vault’s special reporter Gretchen attended the whole event. Her full report can be found here.

Billsbabe Debbie met Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer and Sam Trammell and had a chat with them.
Stephen took this opportunity to thank the Billsbabes for their on-going support for the Brentwood Theatre in his native Essex. He became Patron of the theatre in 2007 and supports their campaign to help fund the completion of the backstage facilities renovations.
When Debra asked Steve to sign her Billsbabe t-shirt, he replied “Dahling, I would love to sign your shirt.”

Debbie handed him the shirt and sharpie. He then curiously took a plate from the table next to them. She asked him what the plate was for and he responded “Dahling, I want to sign the shirt properly”. He  slipped the shirt over the plate so the sharpie ink wouldn’t bleed through to the other side. While Steve was over at an empty table to sign the shirt, Anna told Debbie that one of our Billsbabes had given Carrie Preston a Billsbabe shirt (The Vault’s reporter Janet gave Carrie Preston a t-shirt at the Macon Film Festival earlier this year). Carrie subsequently gave the shirt to Anna  and she revealed that she had worn it a couple of times.  Debbie told Anna that she was the “REAL Billsbabe” …Anna agreed!

click photo to enlarge

The original Billsbabe shirt and more t-shirts are available in our Billsbabe’s Shoppe.

With every item purchased a small charitable donation will be made to the Brentwood Theatre in Essex, United Kingdom.

Enter the Billsbabe’s Shoppe

Article on the Boston Herald by Amy Amatangelo

Anna Paquin feels humbled by her latest project.

The actress stars as Nobel Peace Prize nominee Irena Sendler, who risked her life to rescue Jewish children during World War II, in “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler,” tonight at 9 on WBZ (Ch. 4).

“She did an absolutely extraordinary thing, and she was so young and that’s intimidating,” Paquin said in a recent interview from Los Angeles.
“I was like, ‘I make movies and TV shows and she rescued 2,500 kids out of the Warsaw Ghetto.’ I wanted to do her justice and tell that story in a way that has integrity and truth,and also is not going to be fluffy or trivial. Ultimately, her story is one of hope.”

The 26-year-old made the movie last November between seasons of HBO’s supernatural drama “True Blood,” which returns June 14. She is grateful that her industry allows her to shift between portraying a young woman in Poland nearly 70 years ago and playing a telepathic waitress in modern-day Louisiana who happens to be in love with a vampire.

“I love to challenge myself,” Paquin said. “I love to do the exact opposite of what I’ve been doing. And also, it makes it more exciting to then go back to your other part. I have the kind of looks and the kind of face that I feel like I can blend into whatever scenario. It goes along with not exactly being modelesque in your looks. You’re more chameleonlike, and I love that.”

Paquin, who won an Academy Award when she was 11 for “The Piano,” received a Golden Globe in January for playing Sookie Stackhouse on “True Blood.”

“It was exciting and flattering, and all it really means is that you get to do more,” she said.

Her Oscar win in 1993 has become akin to folklore in her own mind.
“Of course I remember it, but not in any kind of overly visceral way anymore,” she said. “It’s obviously the one thing I’ve been asked about more than anything else in my entire life. I’ve sort of retold my version of what I remember, and how much of it becomes what I remember because that’s how I’ve told it. It’s a pretty incredible thing to happen to a little kid, and I have the career I have because of it and I’m very grateful.”

Paquin is dating Stephen Moyer, who plays vampire Bill Compton on “True Blood.”

“I have a very, very ridiculously perfect setup because usually the thing about acting and relationships is someone is on the other side of the planet,” she said. “So it’s an incredible luxury to get to spend your work time and your personal time with the person you want to be with all the time.”

Video clip: Behind the story of Irena Sendler

Property of Hallmark

THE COURAGEOUS HEART OF IRENA SENDLER starring ANNA PAQUIN Tonight on CBS at 9 PM

Yesterday Anna Paquin was interviewed for the Billy Bush Show.

In the radio interview Anna talks about her role in “The Courageous Heart Of Irena Sendler”. She explains that she likes to be challenged and keeping herself on her toes when it comes to her career.

Anna was very flattered she won the Golden Globe earlier this year, she thinks very highly of the other actress that were nomintated in her category and admits to watch their shows.

About Bill and Sookie in the second season of True Blood she says that at the beginning of season 2 they are a definitely  a couple, making it work and doing couple’s stuff.

And about Stephen Moyer? Anna says that they are very lucky and very very happy.

Listen to the complete interview of Anna Paquin on the Billy Bush Show: anna_paquin_billy_bush_april16

Thank you NBC Universal for allowing The Vault to reproduce the interview.

Article on The Fort Scott Tribune

Local VIPs assembled at Liberty Theatre for the world premiere of “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler.”

Renata Zajdman, left, and daughter Sharon make their way into Liberty Theatre on the red carpet for the world premiere of the Hallmark Hall of Fame film, "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler." Zajdman was one of the more than 2,500 Jewish children saved by Sendler during the Holocaust. (Michael Pommier/Tribune photo)

More than 400 people were in attendance to view the Hallmark Hall of Fame film. Attendees included Writer-Director John Kent Harrison, Executive Producers Brent Shields and Jeff Most, Hallmark CEO Don Hall with his wife, Adele, and other Hallmark representatives. Also attending were current and past members of the “Life in a Jar” project.

The Hallmark-produced film is based on the life of Irena Sendler, a social worker in the 1940s, who led an effort to smuggle more than 2,500 of Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto. The children were given new identities and placed with Polish families and in convents. Sendler kept a hidden record of their birth names and where they were placed buried in jars with the hope that they would someday be reunited with their own families.

“This was a film that had to be made,” Harrison said.

Special attendee, Renata Zajdman was one of the 2,500 Jewish children rescued by Sendler. After the film she spoke of her experience with Sender.

“Her goodness during a time of evil, effects how I view the world today,” Zajdman said. “She worked in a time when murder was legal and rescue was a crime.”

Sendler’s story also led to the creation of “Life in a Jar” in 1999 by a group of Uniontown High School students which has since become globally known. The project is a stage play designed by the students telling Sendler’s story. The play has been performed in the United States and around the world.

“It’s unbelievable … we love knowing that Irena’s story is being shared with the world,” Jessica Ripper, co-founder of “Life in a Jar”, said. “That was our whole goal from the very beginning.”

Norm Conard, Lowell Milken Center Director and co-founder of “Life in a Jar”, received a standing ovation as he was introduced following the film. Conard was the teacher of the students who created “Life in a Jar” as an extracurricular project that did not even receive a grade.

“All teachers aspire to make a difference in the lives of their students and see their students make a difference in the lives of others, but this is unusual, let’s face it,” Conard said. “Its to the credit of the great story of Irena Sendler, its to the credit of these young people.”

Ripper said Hallmark rarely premiers their films where the idea happened. She added the event is the first premier event in which the Halls personally attended.

“To know that (Hallmark) wanted to honor us by having this in Fort Scott is very touching for us,” Ripper said.

The network television premiere of the movie, staring Goran Visnijic, Marcia Gay Harden, and Anna Paquin as Sendler, is scheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday, April 19, on CBS (KOAM, Ch. 7, locally).

For more information on Sendler, visit www.irenasendler.org or contact the Lowel Milken Center at (620) 223-9991.

Article on Jewishjournal.com by Naomi Pfefferman

Anna Paquin as Irena Sendler

Anna Paquin was 11 when she won an Oscar for her performance in “The Piano” and in her mid-20s when she took the 2009 Golden Globe for her leading role in HBO’s vampire series, “True Blood,” but as she locked up her bicycle on a funky stretch of Abbot Kinney Boulevard the other day, she looked like just another young woman from the neighborhood. “Thanks for schlepping down to Venice,” she said as a greeting.

In person, the 26-year-old Paquin is as cheery and down-to-earth — and at the same time as direct and determined — as her “True Blood” character, a telepathic waitress with a penchant for short shorts and the 173-year-old vampire Bill played by Stephen Moyer, who is also Paquin’s real-life boyfriend. On this day, the New Zealand native wore bicycle shorts, her blonde hair was in a ponytail and her face had no sign of makeup. She was both accessible and upbeat, despite the fact that she had gotten off work from the second season of “True Blood” at 4 a.m., slept a few hours, then had to bike to the interview, since she does not know how to drive.

“No worries,” she said of her schedule. “The rest of the world doesn’t run on vampire hours just because I do.”

Paquin came to discuss her upcoming Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler,” in which she plays the titular Catholic Polish social worker who organized the rescue of some 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. The movie airs April 19 on CBS.

For 16 months, starting in 1942, Sendler — who was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize — organized fellow volunteers in the Polish underground to smuggle children out of the ghetto in sacks and suitcases, in packages and body bags, through sewers and subterranean passages. When the Gestapo arrested and tortured Sendler in 1943, she refused to divulge details of her operation, so they broke her legs and feet, leaving her permanently disabled.

The Hallmark film is not a sweeping saga of the Holocaust in the style of “The Pianist” or “Schindler’s List,” but rather a more intimate drama focused on what must have been Sendler’s most excruciating task: convincing terrified parents to relinquish their children to an uncertain fate.

Paquin says she was drawn to the project not only for the chance to play an inspiring heroine, but also because the part marks a milestone in her own career. “I feel like this is the first time I have ever really played an adult in a film, not just as far as the age indicated in the character description, but in terms of the world in which Irena was living, her interactions with others and the decisions she makes,” the actress said. “I loved not being allowed to act in any way like a child.’”

The movie’s writer and director, John Kent Harrison, said Paquin was his first choice to play Sendler. “Irena was matter-of-fact, almost cold-hearted in her approach to asking parents to give up their children, because in those dire times there was no room for sentimentality,” he said by telephone. “And Anna has a toughness at her center, having started in the business so young. She’s been making movies since she was 9, and, at 26, she’s a veteran.”

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