The following articles comes from the New York Times, and while they’re not exactly in praise for Toni, they give “United States of Tara” a very in-depth review: Even “Diary of a Mad Housewife” never had an entry like this one: the heroine has a husband, two children and four personalities. In Showtime’s “United States of Tara,” Toni Collette (“Muriel’s Wedding,” “Little Miss Sunshine”) plays a woman with dissociative identity disorder, which was once known as multiple personality disorder. The show’s comic conceit is that Tara’s loved ones treat her illness as an unenviable but livable condition — like diabetes — and humor her multiple personalities as old family friends or pesky neighbors. It’s not played entirely for laughs. And that is why Showtime’s new half-hour series labels itself a “dark comedy.” A “light comedy” is a sitcom that finds its cultural collision by plopping an alien or a magical creature into the middle of suburban, middle-class America, like “Mork & Mindy” or “Bewitched.” The full article can be read here.

The following articles comes from the USA Today and features some nice quotes by Toni about her role in “United States of Tara”: Toni Collette isn’t all that complicated. Sure, she has been nominated for an Oscar (The Sixth Sense) and Golden Globes (Muriel’s Wedding, Little Miss Sunshine). But she’s still basically an actress looking for work. “I’ve never had that kind of idea of where I wanted to go,” she says. “I’ve always been swept off my feet by roles.” That’s exactly what happened with United States of Tara, which premieres Sunday on Showtime. “When I read the script,” she says, “it was like a juicy page-turner that was full of surprises, and it made me laugh out loud. It was very moving, and as soon as I finished reading it, I was like, Yep, I’m doing it.” The full article can be read here.

As reported earlier, the animated “Mary and Max”, voiced by Toni Collette, Philip Seymor Hoffman and Eric Bana, opened this years Sundance Film Festival. Unfortunately, none of the stars attended the premiere (on the other hand we’re getting plenty of Toni these days anyway ;-) but the director of “Mary and Max”, Adam Elliot, and producer, Melanie Coombs, were in attendance, as was Sundance boss Robert Redford. You can find a couple reviews on the film at Variety, Cinematical and Coming Soon. “Mary and Max” will be shown next month at the Berlin Film Festival.

Article courtesy The New Yorker: Showtime’s two creepy-guy series, Californication (sex addict) and Dexter (serial killer), finished their seasons in December, making way for a trio of troubled-women shows – a new series and new seasons of two existing series – that begin this Sunday. In the première of “The L Word” ’s sixth and final season, the body of Jenny, a writer whose turn toward lesbianism provided the original story line of the show, is pulled from a swimming pool, and some of her friends are under suspicion; in “Secret Diary of a Call Girl,” a young woman in London leads a problematic double life as a regular gal and as a good-time gal; and in the new series, “United States of Tara,” Toni Collette plays a woman with dissociative identity disorder (the term now sanctioned by the American Psychiatric Association for what used to be called multiple personality disorder). The full article can be read here.

Three talkshow appearances have been announced in which Toni will be promoting “The United States of Tara” this coming week. I’ll do my best to bring both appearances online. If someone out there is able to provide any kind of clips or caps from these programs, please drop me a line.

Upcoming appearances:

January 13 – The Early Show – Toni Collette
January 13 – The Tonight Show with Jay Leno – Toni Collette
January 16 – The View – Toni Collette and Diablo Cody