Jalopnik: ewan mcgregor

American Aviatrix Amelia Earhart Gets Biopic

The Auto Insider — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:00:00 EDT

Amelia Earhart, the American aviatrix and first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross medal, disappeared after she stopped radio transmitting on July 2, 1937 during her attempted flight around the world. Now she's getting a movie.

Featuring Hilary Swank as Amelia and Richard Gere as her husband George Putnam, Amelia promises to relive the glory days of the daring aviatrix' life up until the night she disappeared. Amelia flies into theaters on October 23, 2009.

Ewan McGregor Drives A Toyota Prius And Land Rover Defender

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:46:41 EST

As a daily driver, McGregor switches between a Land Rover Defender and a Toyota Prius. Hmm. Well, we're guessing maybe he thinks they cancel each other out or something.

More interesting for us gearheads is that he also rode a BMW R 1150 GS Adventure from London to NYC. Here's the story from Wikipedia:

At the beginning of filming of the TV series "Long Way Round," McGregor advocated riding BMW motorcycles, while his partner Charley Boorman advocated KTM. After off-road tests on the KTM and BMW machines, McGregor acquiesced to Boorman's passion for the KTM. However, after one of their specialist terrain riders met with the LWR team and learned more about their intentions, KTM refused to provide them with their bikes, as the trip seemed too dangerous, or perhaps unlikely to generate the right publicity for KTM. Boorman took the news particularly badly as he had long been desperate to ride a KTM on such a journey. BMW then contributed three BMW R 1150 GS Adventure all-terrain motorcycles. The bikes featured a range of modifications to help the team achieve and document their mission. The bikes were also equipped with cameras, microphones and display / viewfinder screens mounted on the dashboards. A customized GPS system with specially mapped waypoints in Mongolia and Siberia was crucial in areas with no roads or signposting.
For the follow-up show, Long Way Down, the two rode BMW R 1200 GS Adventures, the successor to the R1150GS Adventure bikes they rode in Long Way Round.

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Woody Allen Does Jags

Matthew DeBord — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:30:00 EST

We've discussed Woody Allen's barely repressed car preoccupation before, and his latest flick, "Cassandra's Dream"—which goes into national release tomorrow—only proves that Allen Stewart Konigsburg is a closet greasemonkey.

In the past, it's been Porsches and Volvos (and one memorable reference to a spider the "size of a Buick"). Now that he's switched locations from Gotham to London, of course, he's slipping into vintage Jags: an XK and a luscious E-Type, both convertibles (the trailer with French subtitles shows more of the classic rides). Colin Farrell is the dumb brother who works in the garage, while Ewan McGregor is the wannabe-posh brother who "plays a big shot in borrowed cars." They both have dreams. It gets ugly. But the Jags look great.