Here's a trailer for Young Adult, the new movie from Juno collaborators Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman. Do those names send chills through your spine? Good ones, or bad ones?
Someone dares invoke the earth-shattering wrath of Demi Moore by calling the ageless aged? Indeed! PageSix got porn-y. Sheriff TMZ's busting Maria Shriver and Lil' Wayne. Courtney Love, Jon Gosselin, Kate Gosselin: still suck. Presenting your Saturday Morning Gossip Roundup!
Each winter, with the coming of awards season, the colors of America's multi-plexes turn from bright pastels to dismal browns and grays as Hollywood strains for gravitas with their takes on the most depressing topics of the day.
Looking for something to do tonight? Juno screenwriter/ unhealthy-Defamer -preoccupation topic Diablo Cody is curating the New Beverly schedule for the next two weeks, in a programme she calls MONDO DIABLO: Season of the Bitch!. "Call it a festival, a season, or just TWO SOLID WEEKS OF FUCKING RAD SHIT," she writes on her MySpace blog. The fun kicks off tonight with a Reitman family reunion, as both Ivan and Jason will be on hand to answer all your Stripes and Thank You for Smoking-related questions. To sweeten the pot—as if that fucking rad shit-filled pot needed sweetening—Cody has offered to sign your Juno DVDs and Blu-Rays, or your scrotum:
It was relatively slim pickings at the festival Monday, especially after Guillermo del Toro's live-in-person monster-rhapsodizing was pushed to Thursday and alas, we missed our 4:30 screening about transsexuals in Colorado. Plan C seemed reasonable enough: Drop by the Geffen Playhouse to see a father-son chat between Ivan and Jason Reitman, in which we figured we might catch Dad's jealous flare-up over Juno's success or Son's symbolic shove of his old man into the shadows at stage right. We got neither, though Jason did come clean about that whole nepotism thing.
We'll take any opportunity we can get for a furlough from our shackles at Defamer HQ, so off we go to the Los Angeles Film Festival, which opens tonight with the world premiere of Angelina Jolie's emaciated-assassin actioner Wanted. Maybe not the gritty, funded-by-credit-cards entry you'd expect from fest organizers Film Independent, but that's what the rest of the event is for; running until June 29, this year's LAFF is enticing enough for us to call in sick at least a few days, maybe even all of next week.
Having flirted with dangerous levels of underexposure since winning her Best Screenplay Oscar a little over a month ago, Diablo Cody is back with a double-barreled blast of creative miracles. First up, The Hollywood Reporter notes that Cody's long-rumored comedy series The United States of Tara — starring Toni Collette as the title character afflicted with multiple personalities — is nearing a full-season order from Showtime. We can handle this without much difficulty — and by "handle" we mean "believe," because the second project has the calendar-conscious skeptic in us praying for an April Fool's Day revelation:
· Jason Reitman will direct Jim Carrey in Pierre Pierre for Fox Atomic, a "politically incorrect story centers on a self-indulgent French nihilist who transports a stolen painting from Paris to London." The challenging role will require Carrey to stretch as never before, with several scenes written to be spoken through the ass in fluent French. [Variety]
· Seth Rogen, meanwhile, is attached to Warner Bros.'s Observe and Report, about "a deluded, self-important head of mall security who squares off in a turf war against the local cops." We don't know why. We just think he can do this. [Variety]
Still reeling from the Kathy Batesiest nominations announcement ever, we're left entirely encouraged that the 80th annual Academy Awards brings with it a Best Picture race containing at least two extremely worthwhile nominees. (We realize we're supposed to be impartial observers, but...No Country for everything! Included Best Animated Short and the Irving G. Thalberg!). But enough about us—this is the nominees' morning! It's time for a reactions round-up:
· Michael Moore: "If I'm fortunate enough to stand on that stage again, I will be true to myself and very gracious and grateful for the acknowledgement, but I would start by finishing the last 10 seconds of the previous speech." [Variety]
· Tom Wilkinson: "I had forgotten about the nominations and was walking the dog. Then someone told me to turn on the TV and I saw it. I got this character from the start." [Variety]
An interesting debate has erupted over at our East Coasted sibling site Gawker over the relative merits of Juno, the hippest, sassiest, teen-pregnanciest movie ever! While we don't get it at all—it was twice as adorable as Little Miss Sunshine, at least—you still may want to take a look. And for counterpoint, we offer director Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody, providing commentary over a scene that helps you understand why it all works so well. [Gawker, Slashfilm]
· The Writers' Guild of Great Britain says they're in solidarity with the WGA, and is planning to stage an awards ceremony on Sunday to remind the world that scribes are to be cherished and celebrated, not placed in front of studio gates for SUV target practice. [Variety]
· This year's Oscar contenders display a "bleak, even nihilistic worldview," a largely coincidental development as all were put into production long before Hollywood's collective spirits were darkened by the ongoing labor Armageddon. Should the strike drag on into February, look for replacement host Ryan Seacrest to provide an appropriately somber tone to the proceedings. [THR]
· The Pinkett-Smith family is getting together to make the drama The Human Contract, a film Jada is directing and writing and Will is executive producing. No role is specified for precocious son Jaden, though he may eventually be awarded an associate producer credit for secretly punching up the script during trips to the set with mom and dad. [ Variety]
The Defamer Special Correspondent on Tarted Up High School Theme Parties Sponsored by the Sons of Hollywood Legends just filed this report on the event thrown by Jason Reitman for his producing partner at the Highlands on Saturday night, where all known fire codes relating to the concentration of slutty schoolgirls in one venue were apparently broken:
