Yet further ominous news for Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones: Yesterday, we reported internet mumblings that production had halted so that the director and his production designer could seal themselves inside a Wingnut Films conference room until one emerged, bruised and bloodied, but wielding the winning illustrations for the film's version Heaven.
The ladies of The View had a lengthy meta-conversation all about the "very beautiful!" and "sexy!" photos of their own Barbara Walters in this month's Vanity Fair. And while they do point out the photo spread's accompanying excerpt from Walters' new memoir Auditions, and Babs does allude to tales of past "lovahs," she fails to mention (until Oprah makes her next week) just how tantalizing some of those pages are. As today's preview in the NY Daily News reveals, Walters was involved in a long-term affair with an African-American senator back in the swingin' 70s. And from the sound of it, the affair was far spicier than all those Adrian Lyne movies about adultery:
The closest we ever came to God while watching a Coen brothers film was the time we thanked Him when The Ladykillers was over, but that's not to say we wouldn't give a fair shake to Cathleen Falsani's new book: The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers. Follow the jump for a few key dots Falsani apparently plans to connect — some a little more plausible than others — and then reach into your own filmgoing soul for the ones she sure as Hell better not leave out:
We have to give Britney Spears some credit: even after all the gurney rides, mental ward stays and umbrella attacks, she's still capable of inspiring her fellow Bimbo Summit alumni to follow in her bare footsteps. According to TV Guide, Lindsay Lohan is "in advanced discussions" to become the latest stunt cast victim guest star on the May 22nd finale of ABC's runaway hit Ugly Betty. And in a nostalgic nod to the good old days when she played an outcast in Mean Girls, she's reported to play a fast-food worker who Betty befriends. The only bad news? Lohan will be forced to share the guest star spotlight with the all-time queen of anger management-be-damned divadom.
Seeing a plum opening right off the bat, Winfrey notes the two are seated on precisely the kind of cushy, upholstered furniture that launched her interview subject into the Harpo Studios rafters three years ago. She goes on to frankly admit, "I was a little nervous, since you and I haven't had not sat down for a real conversation since [scare quotes] 'the sofa' incident...I was like, 'Wow'...what was that?" Wow indeed. Cruise goes on to justify the love-powered trampolining as "a moment...I just felt that way." Like any frightened, woodland critter reared into a corner a mountainside hunting lodge, however, Cruise eventually struck back: "You were egging me on! You were egging me on. You were egging me on! You were egging me on, too," he repeated, vengefully. [Oprah.com]
It's been nearly two years since we last detected the whimperings of M. Night Shyamalan, who followed Lady in the Water (and the pouty studio exile that preceded it) with a quiet retreat to his shrouded, moated enclave in the Pennsylvania wilderness. But the LA Times's Susan King smoked him out in advance of his return to theaters this summer, reviving the classic Manoj Twist for a readership craving every word:
This is it! The East Coast has already watched the first of two up-close-and-personal hours with Tom Cruise on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and we've taken the liberty of pulling a preview of what you'll see in just a little over an hour. Feel free to move on if you'd rather be surprised. It begins with a tour of the actor's Telluride home (we're in a superstar's vacation home! Don't touch anything!), with Oprah inquiring about a bookshelf containing a leather-bound copy of every script he's ever made, Tom's margin notes included. ("More intensity!!!" "What's Brian Flanagan's motivation, beyond mixing the perfect Mai Tai?" "YEss, or yeESS? See what works...")
It was a rough spring at the movies for compulsive watch-checkers like us, but we took consolation in knowing that a honest-to-God hero would be arriving come early May. What? No, not that wuss Iron Man, but rather Harmony Korine, whose new Mister Lonely marks the filmmaker's first writing-directing effort in nearly 10 years. And what a decade: Adrift in Paris, anchored in Nashville, survivor of two house fires, briefly reteaming with his Kids director Larry Clark on the teenagers-fucking milestone Ken Park, and ultimately conjuring Mister Lonely from a vision of nuns plunging from airplanes and the garish subculture of celebrity impersonators.
· It's the battle of the dueling Dusty Springfield movies! In one corner, weighing in at...not much...is Nicole Kidman, in a Fox 2000 release written by Michael Cunningham. In the other, weighing in at even less, is Universal's own take, with Kristin Chenoweth attached to star. Will this go the way of the two competing Janis Joplin projects—Pink's vs. Renée Zellweger's—that produced nothing? Or is it going to be a Capote/Infamous scenario, with more Springfield biopic options than we really wanted in the first place? [Variety]
· Official reason given for Toni Collette's departure from Untitled Sam Mendes Romcom By Dave Eggers and His Wife: "Scheduling delays." She'll be replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal. [Variety]
It's official: the world-saving baby-making duo of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are no longer mere entertainers. They are "heroes and pioneers." At least according to the categorical rankings of Time's 100 Most Influential List released today. And not only are they the most influential heroes, they're apparently more influential than Oprah Winfrey. And Tony Blair. In any case, among the "artists and entertainers," the mag happily ranks Lorne Michaels and Robert Downey Jr. high above icky Suze Orman and preachy George Clooney, but we do take issue with several other entries, after the jump.
Game-changing perfect executive storm Ben Silverman gave the keynote address at the TelevisionWeek Upfront Summit in New York recently (a sorry substitution for a line of high-kicking dogs and ponies on the stage of Radio City, we realize, but what can you do). In it, the programming maverick laid out his bold vision for TV's cross-platform, "log on to NBC.com now to find out if Hiro ever gets off Samurai Island!"-future. From TVWeek.com:
An overly excited Corey Haim made a semi-triumphant return to mainstream filmmaking yesterday afternoon on the set of Crank 2. Haim told anybody who'd listen to him that it was the first time he's been on a real set since License To Drive, then proceed to fill his pockets and canvas bags with various items from the craft services table. After Haim was taken to his trailer, he asked the production assistant when will they come by to take orders for the drugs that they're going to need to get through the day.
Finally, an explanation for just about everything we find wonky about Scientologists: they've been inhaling toxic asbestos for forty years! Let's start at the beginning, shall we? Earlier this week, Radar reported that Freewinds, the religion's massive disco-equipped cruise vessel used to train members seeking OT-VIII levels of purity and general awesomeness, may be laced with cancer-causing asbestos on its walls. Their story, based on a local St. Martin newspaper article, prompted a stern denial message from a Scientology spokeswoman who claimed Radar's report was "offensive and just plain wrong," and confirmation that the ship would embark on its next fun-filled Caribbean cruise on May 8th, as scheduled. But a newly uncovered phone call (audio after the jump) reveals that the CruiseMobile isn't quite looking at clear skies ahead.
Our anticipation is great for Oscar-winning, Gays-friendly director Ang Lee's next movie, Taking Woodstock; based on the memoir by Elliot Tiber, it's the unlikely tale of a closeted guy working at his parents Catskills motel inadvertently responsible for mounting the music festival that defined a generation. (OMGZ! I CAN HAZ GAI HIPPYZ?!!!) How to make an already awesome and weird project even more awesome and weird? Variety now reports that comedian Demetri Martin is who Lee wants for the lead. With shooting set to begin in late August, and a greenlight from DreamWorks for his script Will, look for 2009 to be the year that the comic makes the seemingly inevitable leap from cultish stand-up and Daily Show correspondent to full-fledged movie star. It's also going to be the year that actor-comedians go gay on film, but hopefully Martin's portrayal will be a little more nuanced, and less spray-tanned and Versaced, than Jim Carrey's.
An overzealous movie executive loudly and boldly proclaimed that Academy Award winning Twitterer Diablo Cody would get a tattoo of his name on her arm after just one night with him. The executive said it's a sure thing, kinda like greenlighting a script put together from scraps of paper found in Judd Apatow's recycle bin. The executive said, "She might be an extremely in demand and popular writer, but she's a stripper at heart. And you know what they say about strippers, right? Once a stripper, always a stripper! BOOOSSSSH!" Then the executive proceed to bump elbows with the nearest man.
In a Battle of the Lesbian Talk Show Titans (and Rachael Ray, who isn't a lesbian, despite the fact that we could easily picture her spitting out tobacco juice from a softball dugout), producers of The Ellen DeGeneres Show made a last-minute attempt at blocking today's Rosie O'Donnell-themed episode of The Rachael Ray Show. The reason? Concerns that Ray's syndicated series, which used Telepictures-owned clips of Rosie's old show, would beat Ellen's (also a Telepictures production) in the ratings. The Scoop reports:
As everyone knows by now, watching Lost is akin to having Damon Lindelof mount a stepladder week in and week out, and proceed to engage in vigorous intercourse with the squishy contents of your skull. Last night's episode was no exception, offering us [spoiler alert] a flash-forward to Matthew Fox's Jack, who, in a shower-reveal scene reminiscent of a gender-reversed "Bobby's return" from Dallas, is shown to be living with Kate back home. This Jack, however, sported not the rabbi-envy-inducing beard teased in Season Three's finale. Now bear with us, if you will, as we tumble even further down the manscaping rabbit hole:
