All the major movie awards nominations, with the exception of those for the Oscars, have been announced. So we can make a pretty good guess about what will get nods come January 22nd.

Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson were the main attractions at Monday's Bride Wars premiere at the Lincoln Square Cinema. Others who turned up for the chick flick: Vera Wang, Tara Subkoff, Rachel Roy and her daughter Ava, Barbara Walters, Cindy Adams, Erin Fetherston, director Gary Winick, producer Alan Richie, Kristen Johnson, Robert Verdi, Holly Dunlap, Damien Fahey, Mike & Juliet hosts Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy, Lisa Rinna, model Hana Soupkova, and Dina Lohan, as well as the cast of Real Housewives of NYC: Jill Zarin, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Simon van Kempen and Alex McCord, LuAnn DeLesseps, Ramona Singer, and Bethenny Frankel. [PMc, Wiremage, NYO]

A day after clearing his name in Shreveport and clearing his throat in New York, Josh Brolin wants to clear the air about where he stands with "asshole" former co-star Russell Crowe.

• Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick may seem really happy and content with life, but it's just a carefully-constructed façade that is now crumbling to pieces because Broderick can't stop himself from cheating. Or at least that's what the Star is claiming after it caught sight of SJP socializing with a real estate broker, something you wouldn't even think of doing unless you were planning to leave your husband and move out on your own, right? [Star]
• Peter Cook has filed charges against Christie Brinkley for refusing to hand over son Jack's passport so the two can go on a school trip to Egypt. [P6, OK!]
• Disgraced Lehman CEO Dick Fuld and his wife Kathy needed help using JetBlue's check-in kiosk in Palm Beach, poor things. [P6]
• Paris Hilton says she's not a slut because she's only had sex with "a couple of men," which, by that standard, means you're still a virgin. [The Sun]

W. co-stars Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright were cleared today of charges they interfered with a crew member's arrest last summer in Shreveport. Violent, taserific new footage defies you to disagree.

Sean Penn and Josh Brolin appeared together at last night's New York Film Critic Circle awards dinner, where their Milk characters' rivalry reportedly gave way to a more collegial, tipsy thaw.

· We think we have the perfect actor to play Gordon Gekko in the Wall Street remake: recession-proof market tycoon Josh Brolin.
· So we have an almost complete list of Barbara Walters's 10 Most Fascinating People of 2008: Two scientos, two redneck sex symbols, a Vanity Fair covergirl, a pregnant man, and Frank Langella. Simply...*spoken in an urgent whisper* fascinating.
· Tom Cruise is "building a replica of the LA Lakers’ Staples Centre basketball court in the Beckhams’ garden for the soccer ace and his sons Brooklyn, nine, Romeo, six, and Cruz, three," says unsourced internet report.
· LOL! You've got your cross on upside down! Silly.
· We killed a lot of time playing with this Lego Miniman web app. Enjoy the fruits of our labors here, or make one of your own.
· As Chinese Democracy has shown us, rock criticism is in dire need of a synonym for "banshee."

Josh Brolin's World Candor Tour '08 stopped by MTV this week, where he announced that the script for his upcoming comic-book adaptation Jonah Hex is "awful." Except he means it in a good way, he insists, and how could he not — especially now that the writer-directors have been left the project citing "creative differences"?Crank fauxteurs Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor were originally slated to direct Hex from their own screenplay next spring. Variety reports today that DC Comics parted ways with them, however, while for his part Brolin was coy about the duo's role in the project. Of course, after an exchange that started with "I love it" before devolving to "It's awful," there was little else left to say:

Click to viewBoomp3.com At the London Film Festival, W. star Josh Brolin was so excited to be in London that he wanted to shout it from the rooftops. However, Brolin opted to shout next to his co-stars Elizabeth Banks and Thandie Netwon. A raspy Brolin said, “Whooooaaaa! I love London and I love this movie!” [Photo Credit: Getty Images] *A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

Oliver Stone is keeping everyone waiting today at Slate, where he's set to engage Bob Woodward and a few other reporters over the facts and slip-ups threading his new film W. Thing have remained mostly civil so far — no Taser jokes or Christian Bale casting rumors — though a few factual liberties have set off a bit of protest in the ranks. Thankfully, while they wait for Stone, Lionsgate now offers a pleasing historical reference for the rest of us. Behold — W. For Dummies.Or, officially, W. — The Official Film Guide, an obsessive, somewhat addictive gathering of footnotes for amateur scholars ("14. Cheney - Unitary Executive Theory") and culture mavens ("80. W. loved Cats) alike, crammed with supporting details and citations behind some of W.'s more out-there moments. Like "W. on Non-Alcoholic Beer":

· Add a plate of hamsters to the crafts services table: Defamer favorite V is making its long awaited return, with a remake in development at ABC from Scott Peters, the creator/EP of The 4400. [Variety] · W. star Josh Brolin is close to signing on as the lead in Jonah Hex, the facially disfigured DC Comics gunslinger, in a movie by the Crank team. Since his recent tasering by overzealous Shreveport law enforcement has left the right side of his face paralyzed already, half the makeup work has already been done! [Variety] · Eric Bana is negotiating to star in a remake of 2004 French heist drama Le Convoyeur, about an armored car heist. [Variety] After the jump: What hunky mystery disease was spotted lunching at The Grill with Seth Rogen?· Seth Rogen will produce and co-star in I'm With Cancer—an autobiographical spec by Will Reiser about his struggles with the disease—promising to do for chemotherapy what Knocked Up did for morning sickness. [THR] · Remember the names Kristy Flores, Paul Iacono, Paul McGill, Naturi Naughton, Kay Panabaker, Kherington Payne, Collins Pennie, Walter Perez and Anna Maria Perez de Tagle. Now forget them, because they're starring in a Fame remake no one is going to give a shit about. [THR]

W. star and Shreveport jail alumnus Josh Brolin spoke up for the first time on Wednesday about his bar brawl and subsequent detention by that city's police, illustrating a Southern idyll where he was maced, co-star Jeffrey Wright was Tasered and his assistant was hauled to jail for "asking too many questions." And while Brolin and his lawyers wait for the authorities to drop the charges that require him back in court later this fall, we're finally learning exactly how not throw a wrap party in Louisiana — if you must throw one at all:

Lionsgate hosted the premiere of W. last night at the Landmark, where Josh Brolin, Oliver Stone and a celebrity cast of dozens dropped by for the first public-ish screening of Stone's five-month miracle baby. Elsewhere, in a subterranean dungeon populated by the world's few remaining mainstream film critics, the professionals parsed W. in terms that could best be described as lukewarm — Brolin's performance notwithstanding:"The damn movie leaves you feeling sorry for this fucker at the finale, and that ain't hay." — Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere "It's a gutsy movie but not necessarily a good one. Its greatest strength is that it wants to talk about what's on our minds right now and not wait for historians. ... The film gets off to an awkward start with a presidential bull session with speechwriters and top advisers that produced his 'Axis of Evil' speech about Iran, Iraq and North Korea. It borders perilously close to a Saturday Night Live sketch." — Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter "At its best, it holds up as a dramatized character study of the father and son presidents which will be watched keenly in years to come. At its worst, it is submerged by an over-populated cast of characters and a tone which shifts awkwardly between dramatic storytelling and smartass political comedy. ... [T]he film is not a biopic by any means." — Mike Goodridge, Screen Daily "For the most part, Stone and his actors meet the basic requirements of pulling off this quick-draw portrait of still-evolving history. ... Dominating are borderline distorted closeups, especially of Brolin, along with shadowy lighting and generally lackluster lensing. Some of the song choices are downright sophomoric in their too-obvious irony." — Todd McCarthy, Variety "Brolin should be nominated for the Oscar. We'll see whether the crowd around Best Actor is too big for him to crack, but it is a letter-perfect performance that looks much, much easier than most critics and audiences, I think, will understand. ... The question of the film is, 'Why?' " — David Poland, The Hot Blog Why, indeed? We're digging for the critics' bunker as we write this, determined to have an answer one way or another by the time W. opens next week. Send help if you don't hear from us.

The W. news cycle is picking up again in advance of its Oct. 17 release date, and this time around no one even had to go to jail: A few days after Vanity Fair showcased a fresh family photo from the Shreveport set, a new, more irony-embracing TV spot is circulating online. View it after the jump, and tell us if Defamer's finely calibrated crystal ball didn't see the George W. Bush and Friends Variety Hour vibe coming a mile away. And if you still don't believe Oliver Stone had a laff riot in mind from the belated start, a new interview with GQ not only confirms it, but introduces a fantastic, regrettably retroactive casting rumor that would have elevated our expectations beyond W. simply backfiring in Democrats' faces next month:

Here's a photo from Vanity Fair's article about Oliver Stone's upcoming George Bush biopic W. that is, deliberately we assume, reminiscent of their own cover portrait of the actual war mongers. We have the real Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, and Dubya on the left and then Jeffrey Wright (Powell), Richard Dreyfuss (Cheney), and Josh Brolin (Dubs) on the right (along with fake Karl Rove and fake Paul Wolfowitz). The teaser trailer suggests that the impersonations (if that's what you want to call them), especially Brolin's, are spot-on and we think the likenesses are pretty uncanny, too. Anyone you would have cast differently?

When we wondered a few weeks ago whether Josh Brolin might be bringing too much sexual energy to his role as George W. Bush in the upcoming Oliver Stone-directed biopic W., little did we know how much extra erotic mojo the actor has to throw around. In fact, in an interview with (the very appropriately named) W magazine, a freshly unjailed Brolin revealed the recipient of his most unlikely sexual crush — his own father, James Brolin:

Our skepticism regarding the five-month turnaround on W. was founded as much in Lionsgate's potential to move the marketing as it was in Oliver Stone's curious capacity to work that fast. And while we're not necessarily wrong yet, this new, pre-GOP Convention clip making the rounds hints that the whole thing may come together yet — as a date movie! Who knew? Follow the jump for a glimpse at the introduction of librarian Laura Welch to future husband and president George Bush Jr. ("Call me anything but 'Junior'") — two drawling souls joined forever in what's since been recognized the Backyard BBQ Come-On Heard 'Round the World. Awww! [YouTube via Spout]

Considering how the trailer for Oliver Stone's W. focused rather heavily on James Cromwell and Louis Armstrong, we're happy to bring you this new behind-the-scenes clip (courtesy of Access Hollywood), which offers the first extended glimpse of Josh Brolin doing his best impression of The Decider. It's the impersonation that's split the Defamer offices in half, with some calling it uncannily accurate (and uncomfortably erotic), and others finding Brolin miscast and not ready for prime time. We'll let you (and Elisabeth Hasselbeck!) be the judge, though keep in mind this is all B-roll; once Oliver Stone finally makes use of that green screen to take Bush on a kaleidoscopic journey through the jungles of Vietnam to the tune of "Riders on the Storm," perhaps we'll have the context we need to truly appreciate Brolin's performance. Catch the performance in all its glory after the jump.Click to view

Still reeling from their recent poster contretemps with self-declared marketing genius Dane Cook, the crew at Lionsgate was quick to reclaim its edge with yet another shrewd move on behalf of Oliver Stone's forthcoming W. Having successfully leaped from the innovative "Shreveport Arrest Phase" to the "Benson-esque Trailer Phase" of its campaign, a new step-and-repeat poster onslaught has taken over Denver — host city of this month's Democratic National Convention. The art, viewable after the jump, features Josh Brolin doing his best imperious-child act beneath the tagline "A life misunderestimated"; we expect its GOP Convention analogue — perhaps with the flight-suited Commander-in-Chief grinning alongside the even more succinct slogan "Four more months" — to infiltrate Minneapolis-St. Paul by the end of next week.

Ah, the buzz cut: that sometimes-risky, sometimes-successful ‘do usually sported by male celebrities when it's required for a role in a military/secret agent/futuristic film or because they need a quick way to change their public image. But no matter what their reasons are for taking the razor to the scalp, the look has roughly a 50/50 chance of working. Two of the most recent stars to shave it all off are Jennifer Aniston arm candy John Mayer and new member of the Movie Press-Generating Lawbreakers’ Club Josh Brolin, and while Mayer irritatingly manages to pull the look off despite his big head ego, Brolin’s close cut reveals a bit too much skin. Which immediately made us reminisce on buzz cuts of the past, both the bad (Hey, Jude), the good (pre-Scientology Tommy C.), and the very ugly (Attack Of The Killer Umbrella-Bearers):