A History of Survival

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, one of my favorite books of the decade – if not my favorite book of the decade, period – has been adapted into a feature film that was supposed to come out last year.

It didn’t.

Come fall, though, The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee, will arrive in theaters, and you better believe I have all but bought my ticket for it.

The Road was one of the easiest, most engrossing, most intriguing reads. Simple in its writing, beautiful in its hope, and bleak in its description of an unthinkable post-apocalyptic world, McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the tale of a father and his young son on a journey across a barren landscape, was something I could not put down.

Photo: The Weinstein Company.

Conan’s Coming

Conan O’Brien takes over the tradition that is The Tonight Show on Monday, and I for one cannot wait.

O’Brien will help current Tonight Show host Jay Leno say good-bye tonight.

And then, well…then I won’t have to stay up so late to see the...uhh…Bear Frantically Trying to Find His Cell Phone in His Fanny Pack or the Evil Puppy do their thing.

Photo: CanMag.com.

Pose, Snap

And they’re back!

Heidi, Tim, Nina, and Michael – as in Klum, Gunn, Garcia, and Kors – are finally set to return to TV this summer with the embattled, yet anticipated sixth season of Project Runway, which will air on Lifetime.

The show, which relocated to star-studded Los Angeles – “After five seasons, [we] needed a booster shot,” Gunn said – will feature celebrity guest judges, including Christina Aguilera, Lindsay Lohan, and Eva Longoria Parker, but its grand finale take place at New York’s Fashion Week as usual (the show already taped there in February).

Whatever’s the opposite of Auf Wiedersehen, that’s exactly what I’d like to say to Klum & Co.

Photo: EW.com.

Just Because, Pt. 37

Urgh – whatever.

People.com has anointed Sam Worthington “Hollywood’s Hottest Cyborg.”

How 2000 and late of them.

I’ve been anticipating the arrival of the Aussie import, a former bricklayer (yum!) since early 2007, and now that he’s here, I never want him to leave.

The Terminator Salvation star is set to have a big year and an even better career if he keeps it up.

Later this year, he’ll turn up in Last Night, opposite Keira Knightley, and in James Cameron’s much-anticipated Avatar with Star Trek’s Zoë Saldana.

Worthington’s also set to appear in Clash of the Titans next year.

Photo: Warner Bros.

Destination: Wichita

Vanilla Sky co-stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are set to reunite to reunite for the action-comedy Wichita.

Diaz would play an unlucky-in-love woman who meets a secret agent (Cruise). Director James Mangold (Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma) is attached to the movie, which may come out as soon as next summer.

The last time Cruise and Diaz got together, the results were…electrifying. I likey this news. I likey a lot.

Photo: AccessHollywood.com.

It Would Be Cruel to Kid Me

I nearly fainted when I read the headline announcing the news.

My heart skipped a beat. My hands got out of control. My head felt like it was about to explode.

“Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman off to Broadway.”

How could such a wonderful thing happen – and how could it be so within reach in my lifetime? It’s as if chocolate and pizza decided to come together. I’d have some of that.

Craig and Jackman are said to be heading to the Great White Way to star in A Steady Rain, a play about two Chicago cops whose friendship is tested by a domestic dispute they encounter in a poor neighborhood.

You know when the play opens…that’s when I’ll be in New York next.

And they better not pull a Lauren Graham on me!

Photo: VanityFair.com.

Will Zack Attack Again?

I just got off the phone with one my childhood TV idols, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, the star of TNT’s Raising the Bar, who told me he’ll be guesting on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 8, and that he’s preparing something real special.

Mmm…I think I could guess.

But I’m not.

Also, Gosselaar loved my idea of him playing Captain America. “Yeah, you should put that out there for me, buddy,” he said.

Consider it done. Buddy!

Photo: People.com.

This Is Really Uncool

The California Supreme Court upheld today a ban on same-sex marriages that state voters passed last November.

And inequality remains a reality. In America. In 2009.

The court, however, allowed about 18,000 same-sex marriages performed before the ban to remain valid.

Too little, too little.

Photo: CNN.com.

Great Idea, Rightless Right-holders

The producers and holders to the rights of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which began as a crapstastic 1992 movie that later was transformed by Joss Whedon into one of the best TV shows like, ever) are planning on staging a comeback without (as of yet) their best asset: Whedon himself!

And that, everyone, is what I call the worst idea of the week. They have no right – they can’t outdo brilliance.

I’m speechless now.

Photo: EW.com.

Update: “I hope it’s cool.”

And with that simple statement, Joss Whedon either took the highest road on this news, or delivered the pointiest stake through the heart of this ill-advised idea.

It’s Sydney, Bitch

The CW presented a few clips of its upcoming reboot of Melrose Place, premiering this fall, and look, finally, it’s Laura Leighton back on TV:



Count me in because who is Colin Egglesfield (and where can I get one)?

Update: Spoiler Alert! OMFG, WTF!

Boys in Porn

In July 10’s Humpday, the award-winning Sundance darling, Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard play Ben and Andrew, two men who used to be the bad boys on campus.

That was a decade ago.

Since then, Ben has settled down and found a job, wife, and home, while Andrew took the alternate route as a vagabond artist.

When Andrew shows up, unannounced, on Ben’s doorstep, though, the bros easily fall back into their old dynamic of heterosexual one-upmanship.

And then, after a night of perfunctory carousing, the two find themselves locked in a mutual dare: to enter an amateur porn contest.

But what kind of boundary-breaking porn can two dudes make?

There’s only one kind, I’ll tell ya, and that’s exactly the kind they decide to tackle.

It sounds like Humpday’s going to be fun. Now if only Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto had starred in this!

Photo: Cinematical.com.

The Return of the Campion

One of the buzziest films to screen at the Cannes Film Festival this year is Jane Campion’s Bright Star, a period piece about the unconsummated two-year romance between 23-year-old tubercular poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and his 18-year-old neighbor, Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish):



Bright Star is set to debut in September at the Toronto International Film Festival before beginning its quest for Oscar gold later this year.

I Want to Eat This Sound

I am beyond-loving the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Zero”:



I’ve been loving it since I saw them perform it on SNL and then Letterman.

I have got to get their latest, It’s Blitz! like, last month. Karen O rocks!

The Future is Man’s…or Machine’s

In the year 2018, soon after Judgment Day, Skynet’s machines rule, but, as prophesized, John Connor will save all of mankind.

Man and movie audiences have known this since 1984’s The Terminator, when an unborn Connor needed to be protected from a Terminator, a bad robot played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, sent back in time from the future by Skynet, a computer-controlled defense system that has become sentient and has launched a nuclear war that’s annihilated most of the human race except for the survivors who make up the resistance.

In the 1991 sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the machine threat reared its shiny metal head again when, having failed to prevent Connor’s birth, Skynet sends back a T-1000 (Robert Patric), a more sophisticated Terminator, after a teenaged resistance leader. Future Connor sent back a reprogrammed T-800, the one Schwarzenegger played in the first movie and again in T2, to protect young Connor (Edward Furlong) and his mother, Sarah (Linda Hamilton).

To protect the future, the three decide they must destroy Cyberdine Systems, the inventor of Skynet, which they do.

But the threat persisted, and in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Skynet does just that, sending yet another Terminator, a T-X (Kristanna Loken), to 86 as many of Connor’s (Nick Stahl) future allies as possible, including Connor himself and his wife (Claire Danes). Natch, Schwarzenegger’s T-800 is sent back once again to prevent this from happening.

That constant threat, I think, is what made the franchise work as well as it did. Its absence in Terminator Salvation – a perfectly fine movie directed by McG (Charlie’s Angels) and continuation to the resistance’s saga – strips the story of an essential fear that gave it urgency and relevance, you know.

In this fourth entry, the worse already has happened.

Yes, hope now has replaced fear, but it’s not nearly as thrilling to see Connor (now played by Christian Bale) shoot up Skynet’s impressive metallic army – there’s unmanned super-fast and super-able motorcycles; a tall gun-as-a-head iron giant that whisks survivors and stores them concentration camp-style in its cold bowels; and Terminators roaming dilapidated cities with shoot-to-kill orders – as it was seeing him try to stay alive.

But that’s what this movie’s about: salvation (it’s right there in the title, after all). This is the beginning of a new future, but that future can only exist if Connor protects Kyle Reese (Star Trek’s Anton Yelchin), the teenager who will grow up to be his father (and to protect him in the first movie).

To do this, Connor will have to work with Marcus Wright, a mysterious drifter played by rising-star-of-tomorrow, and Australia’s latest import, Sam Worthington (who will star in Terminator father James Cameron’s Avatar later this year).

Terminator Salvation did us all a disservice when it revealed more than it needed about Worthington’s character in its trailers.

I won’t link to the reveal so as not to spoil the surprise, but know that the twist of the story is in line with the theme of the movie: salvation.

McG had his work cut out for him when he took on this project, which he thought was unnecessary. But he has delivered an intense summer ride that is noisier and less substantial than its predecessors, especially the original and T2.

But Terminator Salvation is a good start for a future that I’ll be happy to watch Bale & Co. explore, overcome, and ultimately, win.

My Rating ***

Photo: Warner Bros.

Makes Me Wanna Watch

OK – so I was watching the seventh season of 24, in spite of the fact that I had a scheduling conflict (Heroes) that forced me to make arrangements elsewhere so I could record 24 and watch Heroes live, or within the same night.

It’s a TiVo thing.

Fine, I’ll tell: I don’t know how to set up my digital recording device so I can watch one show while simultaneously recording another one at the same time. I know how to watch something that’s already in queue while recording something else, but….

Anyway, the point is I gave up on going out of my way to keep up with Jack Bauer halfway through the season, but now I’m going to get and catch up, especially because I’m so watching next season now that Chris Diamantopoulos (USA Network’s The Starter Wife) has been cast in the series regular role of the argumentative and tough new chief of staff to President Taylor (Cherry Jones).

I have a hardcore crush on Diamantopoulos, especially after our fleeting moment last year. I mean, how could I not? Look at him!

Photo: RedBookMag.com.

Ledger’s Last

The Cannes Film Festival was the setting for the most high-profile screening of Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

That would be the late Heath Ledger’s unfinished last film, which Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell stepped in to complete:



Insiders say the movie’s is gorgeous, but not terribly commercial. I say someone needs to pick it up and let it make the art-house circuit. Ledger’s fans will want to see it.

Let’s Hear It for the Boy

Chace Crawford, a.k.a. Gossip Girl’s brooding Nate Archibald, is going to put on his dancing shoes for an upcoming remake of Footloose.

Crawford will take over the role Zac Efron (the High School Musical franchise) decided he didn’t want anymore, after all, lest he should get pigeonholed in the musical genre.

A few actresses, including Hayden Panettiere (TV’s Heroes) and Julianne Hough (TV’s Dancing with the Stars), are said to be interested in the female lead.

Photo: TheInsider.com.

Update: Chace Crawford is speaking up.

The actor says his landing the lead in the Footloose remake was kismet.

“I know Zac and we’re actually friends,” he told EW.com. “He’s gotta make the best choice for his career at this point and I have to make the best for mine and luckily it worked out for both of us.”

Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Hairspray) also spoke up about the remake, saying that the classic hit songs from the movie will be sung, and that there will be new songs that will be written by new artists, and those will be soundtrack songs.

Mighty Mighty

He already has one blockbuster (Star Trek) under his belt, but odds are you don’t know who Chris Hemsworth is.

That’s all going to change soon, if it hasn’t already (he was rather memorable in Star Trek, you see): the Aussie has been cast as hammer-wielding title character in Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming Thor.

Hemsworth will be seen in next winter’s The Cabin in the Woods, a Joss Whedon-produced horror movie.

And then, he’s going to dominate our attention in the summer.

Hey – we could do worse…. But it doesn’t get any better than this, IMHO.

Photo: ReelMovieNews.com.

High School Musical

Glee.

That’s going to be the It show of next season – and it’s premiering tonight after American Idol, so get!

Check out the trailer below, and tell me you’re not just hooked:



If you liked Popular, if you enjoy Nip/Tuck, you’re going to just heart Glee.

The Badass Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, opening on Christmas Day, looks hella good.

It’s like the director said, “And I can divorce...for inspiration.”

The movie stars Robert Downey Jr. in the titular role, Jude Law as Watson, and Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler.

Photo: Warner Bros.

An Idea for Anna Wintour

So I totally think Vogue editrix Anna Wintour should ask Madonna to co-chair next year’s Costume Institute Gala at the Met.

After all, M is back in New York, she attended this year’s affair and had everyone talking about her outfit, and is long overdue for a fashion retrospective.

Strike a pose, indeed!

Photo: NYMag.com.

Away He Goes

Every single time Disney and Pixar get together, what they do is magical.

Without fail, they deliver films that are beautiful, creative, stimulating…. They are pretty much perfect.

And when they open their films during the hotter months of the year, they offer movie audiences everywhere what must the rarest of summer treats: something that everyone likes.

Up, which opened the Cannes Film Festival earlier this week and – yay! – arrives in theaters on May 29, tells the story of a grumpy old man (voiced by Ed Asner) who ties thousands of balloons to his old house so he can float away on an adventure to South America.

Photo: Disney/Pixar.

Ciao, Donne!

The hit musical Nine is coming to a movie theater near you this holiday season, and here’s your first look at what to expect from the Rob Marshall-directed, Daniel Day-Lewis-starring film:



The star-packed song-and-dance-happy Nine features – get ready – Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Penélope Cruz, and Fergie. It opens on Nov. 25.

I cannot wait!

Grabbing the Mic Again

Jennifer Lopez is getting all musical on us again, and although her sound is much less street than before, she’s still sounding good (or as good as the dancer can).

A new Lopez tracked called “What Is Love?” leaked earlier this week, and I kind of likey a lot, especially the shrewd sample of Nelly Furtado’s “All Good Things (Come to an End).”

Word is it’ll be included in an upcoming greatest hits album. Which is one way for La Lopez to have a success in the charts again, I guess, since most everyone ignored her previous effort.

Photo: JustJared.BuzzNet.com.

Just Sing and Dance

With Every Little Step, which I saw during the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival last month, filmmakers James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo (The Year of the Yao) explore the enthralling journey of A Chorus Line, from its experimental genesis to the 2006 Broadway revival against which this documentary is set.

The original idea for the singular-sensation musical belongs to director-choreographer Michael Bennett, who met with a bunch of dancers to hear their stories and reams at midnight on Jan. 26, 1974. Bennett taped that meeting, and based many of A Chorus Line’s characters on the young bright things with whom he talked. Stern and Del Deo had access to those tapes, and bits of them play throughout the doc.

Every Little Step goes behind the scenes with exclusive interviews and footage of the revival’s audition process, revealing the dramatic journey of the performers.

In a day and age in which revolting so-called reality TV rules, it is nice to see something that actually depicts real struggle, something for which real people – not fame-hungrybots but worthy performers – work hard, and something that is truly, really inspiring.

Bennett knew there was something life-changing to looking inward.

Every Little Step reminds us of that. And that’s just swell.

My Rating ***1/2

Photo: Sony Pictures Classics.

The Tonys Get Their Man

Neil Patrick Harris has been tapped to host the 63rd Annual Tony Awards, which will take place on June 7 at Radio City Music Hall.

“The discipline of live theatre – doing the same perfect thing night after night, eight times a week – never ceases to amaze me,” the How I Met Your Mother star said. “I’m truly honored to have been chosen as the master of ceremonies for this year’s Tony Awards, and I hope to help provide a first-class evening for all.”

I am sure you will, NPH. And you will cute doing so, too.

Photo: InsideSoCal.com.

Actress-Cum-Singer

All Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester, a.k.a. Queen Bee Blair, wants to do now is sing – and she wants us to listen up.

Meester will spend some of her summer in the recording studio, where she’s working on her debut album, which is due this fall (her first single is slated for July).

The actress, who cites Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry, Gwen Stefani, and Fergie as inspirations, says she always wanted to sing.“I remember I was in the grocery store with my mom when I was little and I heard ‘I Will Always Love You,’” she recently told EW.com. “I must have been 3 or 4, and I went, ‘Mom, that made my back tingle.’ She was like, ‘That’s what music is supposed to do.’ I loved it.”

Here’s to hoping we’ll like your sound.

Photo: EW.com.

What the What!

So Lauren Graham was working on this TV pilot for ABC at the same she has been starring in Broadway’s Guys and Dolls, right.

I traveled to New York City especially to see her dance and sing, get up, and do her thing last month, but girlfriend wasn’t there, double-right.

And now word is, ABC is passing on Graham’s sitcom!

That’s like, so wrong in so many levels….

Photo: PhotoBucket.com.

The Stage Beckons

My girl Gwyneth Paltrow is said to be considering a return to the London stage in a run of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters.

The actress, who is currently shooting the Iron Man sequel, made her West End debut in Proof in 2002 (she then starred in the movie version).

I say do it – and GOOP about it.

Photo: ABC.es.

Kylie Does America

After more than 20 years of teasing, one of Australia’s prime exports, Kylie Minogue, is coming to America for the very first time this fall for a six-date tour that’s surely going to do wonders for gay traveling.

Of finally – finally! – visiting with her stateside fans, the petite powerhouse said, “it was now or never,” and promises her show will include lots of hits, which will be remixed and are not embarrassing for her to perform at all (hear that, Madge?).

Of one thing we can be sure, she said: “There’ll still be the razzle-dazzle, don’t you worry.”

Now add Miami to your schedule, Kylie, and I won’t.

Photo: People.com.

You Think You Know, But You Have No Fairy Tale Idea

The story of the princess of the frog is about to get re-invented, Disney-style, when this holiday season, the studio explores what happened after that one most magical kiss the world has ever know.

First came the teaser trailer, and now here is the first official trailer for The Princess and the Frog, a 2-D animated film featuring Tiana, Disney’s first black princess:



Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls) is perfectly cast as the voice of Tiana, IMHO.

The Not-So-Little Prince

If you don’t fall in love with Hugh Dancy this summer, I can’t help you.

Dancy will star in the Sundance Film Festival darling Adam (opening on July 29 in limited release), the story of a tentative romance between a young man with Asperger syndrome who is quite into the mysteries of space and a new neighbor played by Rose Byrne (FX’s Damages) whose parents are apprehensive about the relationship.

Adam co-stars Peter Gallagher, the rarely-seen-anymore Amy Irving, and Frankie Faison.

Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures.

You Are What You Eat

This summer, filmmaker Robert Kenner’s Food, Inc. will lift the veil on America’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of the government’s regulatory agencies, the USDA and the FDA.

In other words, get ready for a big shock.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma), along with forward-thinking social entrepreneurs, Food, Inc. will reveal surprising – and often alarming truths – about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation, and where we are going from here.

Food, Inc. opens on June 12.

Enjoy!

Photo: Magnolia Pictures.

Space Cowboys

So – am I supposed to call myself a Trekkie or a Trekker now?

I’m not entirely sure what the difference is – all I know is there is one – and that I so am one now thanks to J.J. Abrams’s phenomenal reboot of Star Trek.

Abrams (a veteran writer-director of some of TV’s most satisfying and addictive, like Felicity, Alias, Lost, and Fringe, as well as the man behind who oversaw Mission: Impossible III) has assembled a fine group of up-and-comers to step into the well-worn shoes of the franchise’s original cast.

There’s Chris Pine as James T. Kirk – notice I didn’t refer to his as “Capt. Kirk” – and Zachary Quinto (TV’s Heroes) as Mr. Spock.

They are joined by Zoë Saldana as communications officer Uhura, John Cho as pilot Sulu, Karl Urban as Bones, the U.S.S. Enterprise’s medic, and Anton Yelchin as Chekhov and Simon Pegg as Scotty.

And then there’s the characters’ story, and more importantly for fans, old and new, the history of Star Trek, which Abrams and screenwriters/frequent collaborators Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have managed to preserve by setting their movie – Minor Spoiler Alert! – in an alternate universe.

Which is a pretty clever to honor the old and usher in the new, no matter what William Shatner has to say about it. You know he wasn’t asked to be in this movie, right? No? Well...get on the Google and catch up. (But know that someone else was asked to make a cameo….)

But I digress.

In this storyline, Kirk is a delinquent, thrill-seeking Iowa farm boy, and Spock is a boy torn between his logic-based Vulcan ways and the emotions of his humanity. When the two meet at Starfleet, Kirk and Spock’s unlikely but powerful partnership is the only thing capable of leading their crew through unimaginable danger (courtesy of Eric Bana’s Nero, a villain who can open black holes and obliterate entire planets).

Yes, together, they can boldly go where no one has gone before (after all, that is their destiny). And I’ll follow right behind.

I never thought I’d ever pay to watch a Star Trek movie, but I’m hooked and cannot wait to see a follow-up.

My Rating ****

Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Clotheshorses

A slew of stars put their best foot forward last night for the “Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion” Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Some of the best dressed were Anne Hathaway, who looked ’60slicious in purple Marc Jacobs; Heidi Klum, who worked a voluminous blue J. Mendel gown, and Rihanna, who walked up the steps of the Met for her first function since February in a menswear-ish black puff-sleeve Dolce & Gabbana suit, ruffled white shirt and bow-tie.

Madonna, on the other hand, attended the A-List event in an outfit I’m describing, quite generously, as reminiscent of her going to Cannes for Truth or Dare.

But she looked like she was having fun, which is what matters.

Photo: People.com.

Pass the Golden Bucket

The nominations for the 2009 MTV Movie Awards were announced today, and Twilight and Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire are leading the way with six nods apiece.

Both are up for Best Movie, along with The Dark Knight, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, and Iron Man.

MTV has also added two new categories to the mix: Best Song from a Movie and Best WTF Moment.

Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire), Twilight’s Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, and Ben Barnes (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian), among others, were singled out in the Breakthrough Performance Male category.

Meanwhile, Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia!), Kat Dennings (Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist), and Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), among others, are up for Breakthrough Performance Female.

For a complete list of nominees, click here.

The show will air live on May 31 with host Andy Samberg (TV’s SNL).

Photo: Summit Entertainment.

There Once Was a Boy with Claws in His Hands

Summer has officially started with the debut of the blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Thank you, Hollywood, but, uh, may I have a word?

The title of this prequel to the successful trilogy about the X-Men promises Wolverine’s (Hugh Jackman), well…origins.

Instead we get a telegraph recounting events that don’t make too much sense – his black-sheep half-brother, Victor Creed, a.k.a. Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber), actually is his brother (even though their mutations are different)? he fought wars (alongside his hot-headed sibling) in spite of the contempt he felt for the human race that rejected him? and, hey, speaking of mutation, why wasn’t that explained a bit more? We’re asked to take young James Logan’s abilities (regeneration, super-strength, gnarly claws that grow out of his hands) the way we do, say, his thick black hair.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine doesn’t concern itself too much with these questions, and that’s a good thing because it smartly, I say, focuses on photographing Jackman & Co. – including Ryan Reynolds, will.i.am, and Taylor Kitsch – in the most homo-erotic light possible, which does bring out the gays and the girls to the movie theater.

Guys, natch, don’t care to notice that kind of thing as long as things go boom.

The movie gives us an information download (mostly over the opening credits) before it quickly rushes to the story it really wants to tell – that of how Wolverine came to be a part of the Weapon X program and how he got his adamantium skeleton.

It’s a pretty fun ride, and a good-looking one at that, you know. Jackman is ripped to shreds, as are his co-stars, so the man candy alone could sustain the somewhat insufficient storyline of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But there’s more meat to this beloved comic book character – meat that isn’t on his arms – right?

Yes, it’s not a complete wasteland, but is that really the kind of thing you want to see/spend your money on?

Well, yes. It’s summer, at least if you follow the Tinseltown calendar, so enjoy it.

My Rating **1/2

Photo: 20th Century Fox.

What Boys Want

The Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival will close its 11th year of programming tonight with the South Florida premiere of Little Ashes, a drama starring Twilight’s pin-up boy, Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dalí, and the festival will give the boys exactly what they want: Pattinson at his most provocative yet.

The drama, set against the backdrop of fascist Spain, follows three of the era’s most creative young talents and their relationships with another.

There’s Dalí, the poet Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltran), and the filmmaker Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty), who watches helplessly as the friendship between the surrealist and Lorca develops into an unusual love affair.

Little Ashes opens wide on May 8.

Photo: Regent Releasing.

An Emmy for TV’s Other Ellen

I’m officially casting my ballot for Actress in Drama Series at the Emmys this year for Ellen Pompeo, the star of TV’s Grey’s Anatomy.

Not that I actually get to vote of anything….

Seriously, though, I pick her…I choose her…I love her because not matter what you read, Pompeo’s Meredith Grey is the most complex female character on TV right now, and the actress has had the uncelebrated task of outstandingly playing a deeply flawed, often unsympathetic character for five seasons.

This year, though, Meredith Grey has turned a corner, and last night’s episode, “No Good at Saying Sorry (One More Chance)” really showed the audience that she’s not dark and twisty for her health. Yes, we’ve been led to understand her, but last night I truly felt we’ve been wrong about her for so long. Meredith’s extremely real and raw, and it boggled my mind that Pompeo’s work has gone overlooked for so long.

Grey’s Anatomy is an ensemble piece, but it’s time its star gets all the kudos she so richly deserves.

Photo: EW.com.

The Penny Savers

Coldplay know it’s hard out there for a fan, so they’re giving fans what they want – for free.

Starting with the band’s May 15 show in West Palm Beach, everyone attending Coldplay concerts on their North American “Viva La Vida Tour” will receive a free live album as a “recession-busting mark of gratitude.”

Fans not holding tickets can get the nine-song collection, LeftRightLeftRightLeft, as a free download on the band’s Web site as of May 15.

“Playing live is what we love. This album is a thank you to our fans – the people who give us a reason to do it and make it happen,” Coldplay said in a statement.

Just one more reason why these guys are, indeed, very much on the path to becoming the greatest band in the world….

Photo: MSN.com.