Jennifer Lawrence Spent Part Of Her Holiday At A Hospital
Jennifer Lawrence has made a tradition out of visiting a hometown children’s hospital during the holidays, and she didn’t disappoint this year.
The Joy star paid a visit to Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville just before Christmas, dressed casually as she spoke to both patients and staff. The hospital sent her a thank-you message on Facebook afterward, and several of the patients posted photos with the actress on social media. One little boy–who is battling cancer–told his mom he’s now “famous” because of the meeting.
“Thank you for bringing many smiles to the patients before the holidays,” hospital staff wrote.
The visit has become an annual thing for Lawrence, who grew up in Louisville and is one of the city’s darlings.
Jennifer Lawrence at Kosair Children’s Hospital today! (via: @Gw_44) pic.twitter.com/oycDY3MpKY
— Jennifer Lawrence (@JenniferUpdates) December 23, 2015
Lawrence made headlines last week when it was reported that she almost had a part in Quentin Tarantino’s latest hit film, Hateful Eight, but the role went to Jennifer Jason Leigh.
“I’m a huge Jennifer Lawrence fan. I think I’ve been on record of saying that her and David O. Russell’s relationship is very William Wyler-Bette Davis like, and that’s a good thing to be like. And I can see her doing a good job with this role, so we went to talk about it and everything. She was just doing me a courtesy to see me, I think. She was doing Joy. She had to do all this publicity on the Hunger Games movies. There was just no f**king way in the world that she was available,” Tarantino said recently.
Instead, Lawrence went for Joy, David O. Russell’s sort-of biopic about the creator of the Miracle Mop, Joy Mangano. While Jennifer and Russell have worked together several times before–on critical successes Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, most notably–their newest project hasn’t scored such hot reviews.
“If only Russell trusted Mangano’s true story. Instead, he’s turned her life into a over-staged mess of awkward exposition, contrived dialogue, and characters so willfully unreal they feel acrylic. Lawrence is, once again, ridiculously young for the role (Mangano was nearly a decade older at the time), but also much better and more natural than the noteless part she’s forced to play. She can’t save a turkey though; in a season rich with cinematic options — Star Wars, Sisters, The Revenant — this is not the joy you’re looking for,” wrote Entertainment Weekly‘s Leah Greenblatt.
It seems that even with the ever-successful triumvirate of Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and Robert De Niro, Joy couldn’t excite critics the way Russell’s former projects have. And while most of the negative reviews have focused on the story’s ability to draw in the viewer and not the actors’ talents, Jennifer Lawrence has been very vocal in her support of the film, so the bad reviews will likely come as a strong blow.
Not all the reviews have been bad, however; A.O. Scott from the New York Times says that Lawrence’s talents onscreen trumped any issues a viewer might have with the story itself.
“It can be argued that Ms. Lawrence is miscast, that she’s too young, too glamorous, insufficiently dented by life’s hard knocks. It can also be argued: So what? Joy’s Cinderella qualities suit her perfectly, and she has the rare ability to combine radiance with realism,” Scott wrote.
Jennifer Lawrence likely won’t let a few negative reviews get her down; the actress just finished up a hugely successful Hunger Games trilogy and will be seen soon in the next X-Men movie. She also recently revealed that she’s exchanged kisses with her costar, Liam Hemsworth — off-screen.
“Liam and I grew up together. Liam’s real hot, what would you have done? Yeah,” Jennifer said.
[Image via Twentieth Century Fox]
