Annasophia Robb Page 2

Fashion Week is in full swing, so as per tradition, everyone is looking to the front row at fashion shows as much as the runway. For a while now, the front row has been the place to be seen, not just to see next season’s looks. So it’s about time for a round-up of this year’s most fashion-conscious celebrities.

Robb might play an 80s suburban teen on television, but her style definitely wasn't left behind.

The Rebecca Minkoff show on Friday attracted a whole host of Millenial Hollywood starlets. Anna Kendrick sat next to Carrie Underwood, who sat next to The Carrie Diaries star AnaSophia Robb, who sat next to Girls star Zosia Mamet. In short, it was like a nominees list for a Teen Choice award. Apparently, after taking fashion blogs by storm, Rebecca Minkoff is now steadily conquering young Hollywood as well. And with a collection dominated by short skirts, school girl inspired uniform dresses and uber-trendy dark makeup looks, it’s no surprise that the show appears to the younger crowd.

Continue reading: Fashion Week Front Row: Why The Best Seats Go To The A-Listers

The Carrie Diaries continues with second episode 'Lie with Me' on The CW tonight (January 21, 2012) on the back of a mixed response for its pilot, which premiered last week. The show - a sort-of prequel series to HBO's Sex and the City - stars AnnaSophia Robb as a young Carrie Bradshaw finding her way in the bright lights of New York.

The show clearly has an intended audience that probably love and will continue to love the show, though the critics weren't as forgiving of the shaky script. The Guardian said, "Bad clothes, bad hair, bad writing.There are drugs and gay men. There's shop-lifting and lying. There are multiple references to sex. But if I tell you that the euphemistic line to describe intercourse is "A hot dog in a key hole," maybe you'll get a sense of a) how lacking in edge this show is and b) what a ridiculous script it has." The Hollywood Reporter said, "It's just important to remember that - voiceovers and wild dresses aside - the prequel is still a couple of boroughs removed from the original."

Robb almost passed on the chance to play Bradshaw, having been accepted into Stanford University. "When I was younger, I didn't want to be on TV," she told Teen Vogue, "I made a conscious decision to stay away from Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel-not that they're not great companies, but because I wanted to play different kinds of roles and have the freedom to choose my projects. So when my agent called about this job, I said no way. TV was too much of a commitment." Eventually changing her mind, Robb signed a long-term contract to star in The Carrie Diaries and decided to put off her university ambitions for the time being.

Continue reading: The Carrie Diaires: How AnnaSophia Robb Almost Rejected Carrie Bradshaw Role

New teen drama 'The Carrie Diaries' received mixed reviews after airing on Monday night (January 14th 2013) on CW with critics calling the show 'bland' and 'inept'.

The series was made as a prequel to 'Sex And The City' looking into the teenage life of Carrie Bradshaw (played by Sarah Jessica Parker in SATC) in the '80s in Connecticut. Young Carrie is played by AnnaSophia Robb who appeared alongside Johnny Depp in the 2005 adaptation of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. However, many critics have slammed the show for a number of different reasons. Matthew Gilbert from The Boston Globe called it 'somewhat bland' before knocking the appearance of the actress in comparison to Sarah Jessica Parker. 'She's not as small and angular, and she has a softer temperament', he said. 'I spent too much time during the premiere trying to morph Robb into Parker in my mind's eye.' Matt Zoller Seitz from The Vulture was even more cold about the show. 'The characters are bland', he said before calling it 'an inept spin off that dishonours its source' and accusing it of 'wanting to cash in on 'Sex and the City'.

The slightly warmer reviews came from Robert Lloyd at the LA Times. 'The situations are stock - John Hughes wrote this playbook pretty thoroughly - and the dialogue does not exactly crackle', he said, while Tim Goodman from The Hollywood Reporter said: 'It's kind of quaint and far less cynical than 'Gossip Girl''.

Sex and the City was, for many, the defining show for women of the late '90s and early noughties, leaving a legacy that has continued into two enormous movies within the last eight years. Now, to capitalise on that enormous success, and to draw an entirely new cohort of Carrie Bradshaw fans, the CW have commissioned a prequel series called The Carrie Diaries, aimed at teenagers rather than women, and set in 1984 with a loose aim of laying down the foundations of Carrie's love of fashion, men and Manhattan.

The trailer for this new series was released over the weekend (27th Oct 2012). Despite the clip seeming to give away a huge variety of potential spoilers for the series (in fact, it may just be the whole first episode squeezed into 3 minutes) there are elements of promise. To round up: a young Carrie Bradshaw returns to high school after a summer spent grieving for her mother. A new boy, handsome and interested in Carrie arrives at school, and her friends divulge that they've lost their virginity. Carrie's father, worried about her welfare and trying to keep her busy, organises and internship for her in Manhattan where she meets someone in the publishing business- Larissa- who gives her her business card. Exciting! 

Certainly, its doubtful that those of us that love Sex and the City will also love The Carrie Diaries- the target demographic is just far too different, and it doesn't seem to be quite capturing the glamour, extravagance and sex-appeal that was captivating about Bradshaw and her friends. However, there is promise and it seems likely that it will be a mixture of Clueless and Ugly Betty- no bad thing. The Carrie Diaries will begin airing in January 2013 and will be starring AnnaSophia Robb, who you may recognise from 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and 2007's Bridge to Terabithia.

Continue reading: 'Manhattan! My First True Love' Sex And The City Prequel 'The Carrie Diaries'