With Guy Ritchie's 2008 vintage RocknRolla a relatively encouraging return to form, word on the street is that this year's Madonna Household movie misstep might have fallen to the singer herself. Indeed, while her directorial debut Filth and Wisdom stirred notice and a sort of rubbernecking curiosity last winter among filmgoers at the Berlin Film Festival, the new trailer touches pretty much all the thematic bases we'd come to predict from A Film By Madonna. Striving ballet dancer turned stripper? Check! Pharmacy worker stealing drugs for ill African children? Check! Internationally renowned musician turned self-aware actor? Check! (But let's be fair: Eugene Hutz is constitutionally incapable of anything but scene-stealing on stage and screen.) But hey — a trailer is a trailer is a trailer. We have a standing invitation to see all 84 minutes before it opens Oct. 17, which we think we'll accept; as far as we're concerned, the woman still has Gay Football Olympics goodwill to spare. [Apple]

Filth & Wisdom, Madonna's debut as a film director, recently premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. The reviews have actually been not that bad, and the singer is, in her own words, "Chuffed, as they say!" Madonna is really one of my favorite British people. The bizarre, off-putting Gypsy punk Eugene Hutz is the star of the film, which, to quote Madge again, "is about two things: the duality of life and it's also about the struggle with that duality." Watch a video here of Madonna, looking exhausted and vaguely sad, talking about the film. Hutz, who seems to have just wandered out of a Brecht play, pops up too, playing a little ditty of revolution. (Also note that one of the related clips is, ominously, from the Russian silent film about people dying, Battleship Potemkin. Mental!) After the jump, a clip from Madonna's most recent film disaster, Swept Away.

· The Generic Big Bash
Paul Oakenfold at Capitale.
Given that the guest list is determined entirely by the "guest's" ability and willingness to pay the $200.00 per person entrance fee, we're guessing that Capitale regulars P. Diddy and Heidi Klum probably won't be there this time. But if you must do the club scene for New Year's (and everyone has to do it oncealbeit preferrably between the ages of 22 and 25), Capitale's as good a place as any. For that meager sum, you get champagne, pretty people in black tie, and a big-name DJ. Of course, if you're doing the club thing, all you really need is the champagne. Expect to be surrounded by junior M&A analysts, assorted trustafarians, and the occasional Jersey mobster. [NY Post]

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