Celeb roundup: Carice van Houten pregnant, Mountain Teases CLEGANBOWL
By Ani Bundel
We interrupt this interminable wait for Game of Thrones Season 6 to arrive with a happy real life announcement from Carice van Houten (no relation to the Springfield van Houtens) and her boyfriend, actor Guy Pearce. (You may remember him from such films as The King’s Speech where he played Abdicatin’ Edward, and Iron Man 3, where he played big bad Aldrich Killian.) They declared yesterday that they are expecting their first child together, via People Magazine, which is where the respectable celebrities post these sorts of statements via their spokespersons.
Though fans are already starting to speculate what van Houten’s breeding predilections might mean for Game of Thrones Season 7, the answer is probably “none.” After all, the production at this point are old hands at the baby bump hiding game, having had to do it twice with Lena Headey, once in filming the first season, and again when filming Season 5. With that in mind, let us simply toast to the couple and their good fortune. Everything’s coming up Milhouse!
Meanwhile, Hafþór Julius Björnsson, otherwise known to writers who don’t want to remember what the key combination is for þ as “The Mountain,” has taken a break from lifting ridiculously heavy things and turned to hyping Game of Thrones Season 6. Unlike the other actors in the production, he is not doing it the traditional way, teasing having seen rough cuts on Twitter, or telling us how epic it will be in interviews while waggling their eyebrows wildly. Instead he honored a Turkish Game of Thrones fan artist, Ertaç Altınöz, by reposting a piece of his work on Instagram.
Most wouldn’t think twice about this, except, of course for the subject matter. This image depicts the long awaited fantasy fight that may or may not happen between the presumed Undead Clegan Brothers in the coming A Song of Ice and Fire novels, and perhaps also on the TV show. So far, the show hasn’t confirmed The Hound is in some sort of alive state (though actor Ian McShane has been very forthcoming in confirming the subject.) And as we all saw Robert Strong, the Undead Mountain hulking away in his armor in the Season 5 finale, fans are starting to feel the CleganBowl hype. It looks like Björnsson has caught the fever too. But whether his plan is teasing the fans that it could be happening, or hoping to foment a movement that will convince Benioff and Weiss to include it in the show is anyone’s guess.
