Fashion Goal

After four seasons as the face and H-O-T body of Emporio Armani Underwear, David Beckham’s taking a seat on the sidelines.

Coming in to replace him and slip into his fancy undies? Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo.

Giorgio Armani announced last week that the the national Portuguese team player will be the “new official worldwide testimonial” for Emporio Armani Underwear and Armani Jeans starting on Spring/Summer 2010.

I don’t quite see it.... But I’ll keep and open mind and my eyes peeled.

Photo: TheInsider.com.

The Lady Knows What She Likes

Sharon Stone has signed on to star in the indie drama Satisfaction, playing the role of a wealthy woman who gets involved with a young London gigolo.

The project sounds...in’erestin’.

Carice Van Houten will play a younger woman who forms the third part of the love triangle.

Production on Satisfaction will begin shooting in the U.K. early next year.

Photo: TheLipstickDiaries.com.

She Has Style, She Has Flair

It’s the Sex and the City sequel nanny, everybody.

British actress Alice Eve has joined the cast of the SATC part deux.

Eve will play Charlotte’s young nanny, who stirs up conflict among the fab four...and Charlotte and Harry, I shall care to wager.

She has that wicked air, doesn’t she?

Photo: StuffOnTV.blogspot.com.

Just Because, Pt. 51

I wish I’d been in New York last Thursday.

Star Trek’s Chris Pine made time for an impromptu autograph session with fans outside a Big Apple theater where he caught the opening of The Royal Family on Broadway.

Swoon much?

I mean, the boy can’t help it, as this Star Trek gag reel proves.

Photo: People.com.

Going 3-D

The Cabin in the Woods, the upcoming horror movie produced and co-written by Joss Whedon and starring Chris Hemsworth, has been pushed almost a year from its original Feb. 5, 2010, release date, to Jan. 14, 2011.

Color me disappointed!

But, lest you go thinking the movie’s a stinker or som’in’, know that it’s all got to do with the movie, originally shot in traditional 2-D, needing more time to undergo the lengthy conversion process to 3-D, a format that’s proving to be quite lucrative.

So there....

Photo: Wired.com.

Side Order of Love

Love Happens is like pizza.

I finally saw the movie today – sorry, Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston, but I have ears, and the buzz I’d heard…not so good.

Speaking of Aniston, and before I tell you why I think Love Happens is like pizza, what the what is up with her oeuvre? It’s all over the place, and not in an interesting, successful way.

I thought she’d finally come out on top, you know, following the success of Marley & Me and He’s Just Not That Into You, and go three for three.

I really believed she was on a roll, that the tabloids would stop writing her up as a victim of Brangelina. But after the little-seen-yet-loud bomb that was the indie Management (which is now out on DVD, and which I plan on renting…just to see for myself), and now this Seatle-set trifle, well…I’m not quite so sure.

I’m looking forward to renewing my membership to Team Aniston, though, and next year’s The Baster and The Bounty sound like they might hit, while her upcoming Pumas and Goree Girls sound equally promising.

But, anyway…about the movie being like pizza.

I say that because it is chee-say! I find that absolutely enjoyable every now and then, but even I can admit pizza’s filling, not nourishing.

I thought this was supposed to be a rom-com. Instead I got a subpar weepy about a reluctant self-help book author on the brink of a major multimedia deal who still hasn’t made peace with his wife’s passing three years, and a florist who’s emotionally bruised by the bad men she seems to fall for time after time.

They meet awkward, and…connection happens.

I’m not too fond of movies that ask their audience to believe that two people can fall in love with each other over the course of a weekend, so imagine my cringe when I realized this little number was asking precisely that of me. Connecting I buy, but not falling.

If the writers had fleshed out these people, Aniston’s character especially, more, then perhaps – perhaps! – I would’ve bitten.

But Eckhart’s Burke Ryan (uhh, who reversed his name?) comes off hack-y, and Aniston’s lovely, perfectly made up Eloise comes off as the neediest girl in the Emerald City.

Love Happens, but it doesn’t have to happen to you unless you’re in bed sick with the flu later this season and you need a so-so rental to pass the time.

My Rating *1/2

Photo: Universal Pictures.

From Wonderland to Eternity

Australian up-and-comer Mia Wasikowska, a.k.a. 1 Alice in Tim Burton’s upcoming Alice in Wonderland, a.k.a. 2 suicidal gymnast Sophie on HBO’s In Treatment, will play the female lead role in Restless, Gus Van Sant’s follow-up to Milk.

Wasikowska will star as a terminally ill 16-year-old who falls in love with a death-obsessed teenage boy.

Restless was written by first-time screenwriter Jason Lew. Ron Howard and his daughter Bryce Dallas Howard are co-producing the film.

Photo: EW.com.

Little Girl Lost

Spotted in her finest S&M gear: Blake Lively on the big screen.

The Gossip Girl star’s upcoming The Private Lives of Pippa Lee features her as Pippa, a runaway who seeks refuge with her lesbian aunt and dominatrix lover, and ends up a fixture in a world filled with drugs and S&M movies starring roles. Luckily a much older lover (Alan Arkin) comes to her rescue.

Robin Wright Penn plays an older Pippa in Rebecca Miller’s latest, which also co-stars Julianne Moore, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and Maria Bello.

The film premiered in February at the Berlin Film Festival and is set to open in limited release stateside on Nov. 27:

Just Because, Pt. 50

There’s no point escaping anything Twilight at this stage in the game, but I keep tryin’.

However, I thought some of y’all would enjoy this photo of buffed-up New Moon star Taylor Lautner.

The actor got soaked – to better showcase his guns! – during a photo shoot in Malibu a couple of days ago.

Enjoy!

Photo: People.com.

Found on the Big Screen

Lost’s Rebecca Mader hasn’t wasted any time making her way to High Profileland.

The actress will follow up her turn in the upcoming George Clooney-Ewan McGregor movie The Men Who Stare at Goats with two additional big-screen projects.

In the rom-com Ceremony, Mader will play a married bridesmaid, who makes a pass at a young man (Will & Grace’s Michael Angarano) that crashes the wedding of an older woman (Uma Thurman) with whom he’s in love.

And in The Big Bang, Mader will play a hypochondriac meth addict who works at a medical center. Antonio Banderas will co-star as a private detective searching for a former stripper in a mystery connected (somehow) to a particle collider.

Although I will miss Mader on Lost next season, if she doesn’t make any more appearances unlike Ian Somerhalder, Elizabeth Mitchell & Co., I’m glad to see she’s keeping busy.

Photo: TVGuide.com.

Another Big Star Hits the Boards

Broadway is busting at the seams with A-Listers this season, so the West End is stepping up its game.

Keira Knightley is set to make her debut in London in a new production of Moliere’s The Misanthrope.

The actress will star opposite Damian Lewis and Tara Fitzgerald in the play, which updates the story from 17th century Paris to contemporary London’s entertainment scene. It is set to open on Dec. 17 and run through next March.

Knightley will play an ambitious American film star named Jennifer, who attracts Lewis’ character.

Photo: TheInsider.com.

For Burlesque the Bell Bitches

Yes, finally, Kristen Bell’s going to channel the bitch within her!

The actress has been cast in the getting-more-must-y-with-each-casting-scoop, Christina Aguilera-Cher-starring Burlesque, which also will feature Cam Gigandet and Stanley Tucci.

Bell will play Nikki, “the loose-cannon lead dancer and main attraction at the club who spirals out of control when Aguilera’s character suddenly gets the spotlight.”

Loves it!

Photo: EW.com.

A Nobel for Obama

In a bit of a controversial turn of events, President Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms and strengthen international diplomacy.

That sounds good to me, although I can see the point of it being much too soon in his administration for such an accolade.

In its announcement today, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, however, commended Obama’s calls for peace and cooperation and the impact they have made on the global mood.

“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” said committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland. “We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future but for what he has done in the previous year. We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do.”

Sounds sensible enough to me.

Now, in related news: U.S. First Dog Bo turned 1 today.

Happy Woof-day, boy!

Photo: TVGuide.com.

Patriarchy

I’d been waiting with bated breath to see Clive Owen’s buzzed-about tender turn in The Boys Are Back, and I’m thrilled to say the actor more than earns his shot at a Best Actor nomination at next year’s Oscars.

Owen’s usually all brawn on the big screen – hey, Sin City and Shoot ’Em Up! Or he’s the most brute of cads – here’s looking at you, Closer.

Even at his smoothest, like in last spring’s Duplicity, there’s a hint of devil-may-carelessness that doesn’t inspire more than mere fascination, you know what I mean. This film debunks that notion for Owen.

His brand of bad boy, of rogue, may not scare his audience, but I would wager it’s never made anyone want to…get him to commit to them. It’s like, up until now his characters have been these misbehaved dogs: loyal, but unpredictable. That’s all changing with The Boys Are Back. Owen’s showing us that in his care, everything will sort itself out.

Only once before, in Derailed, had he been given the chance to play someone’s dad, but that role was underwritten and didn’t showcase his paternal prowess.

By casting him in this based-on-a-true-story film (which, OK, the actor helped to executive produce), Scott Hicks (Shine) delivers a vastly different Owen than we’re used to seeing, one whose alpha maleness is toned down by grief.

And I likey. I likey a lot.

The actor plays Joe Warr, a top British sportswriter living in Australia, and, for the purpose of the story, a man quite ill-prepared to raise his two sons alone after the untimely and swift passing of his second wife.

After his wife’s death, Joe’s left to care for his son Arthur (Nicolas McAnulty). After a few weeks, his oldest son Harry (George MacKay), the one he left behind to be raised by his mother in England, heads Down Under for an extended stay. Without a roadmap for how to move on and forward with their lives, Joes decides it’s best to leave convention behind, and lead a life based on a mantra of just saying yes.

When things go awry, though, he’s forced to step up and behave like a parent, but he does so in a way that he doesn’t completely abandoning the joy shared in their new world.

Especially because just saying yes helped them become a family.

The Boys Are Back is by no means a perfect film – I sometimes could feel it trying hard to tug at my heartstrings.

But Owen is perfect in it, and that to me is reason enough to say yes to it.

My Rating ***

Photo: Miramax Films.

The List, Pt. 6

In: Gavin Newsom.

So Five Minutes Ago: Barack Obama.

O-V-E-R: Sarah Palin.

Photo: LAWeekly.com.

In the Motherhood

Jennifer Hudson is coming out as a mother.

J. Hud introduced son David to the world today – in her own terms. She and fiancé David Otunga never confirmed she was preggers until the baby’s birth in August. Aside from her Divas gig last month, she’s been pretty much focusing on her bundle of joy.

“I love being nurturing and caring because I love to see other people happy,” she said. “Who better to devote my time to than my own child?”

Click here to read more about Hudson’s life as a mommy.

Up next for Hudson is the ABC special, Jennifer Hudson: I’ll Be Home for Christmas, airing in December.

Photo: People.com.

Show Her the Money

People are worried that early Best Supporting Actress frontrunner Mo’Nique, the breakout performer in the upcoming festival darling Precious, is hurting her winning chances by asking for too much to promote the film and plain ol’ saying things she shouldn’t.

Tsk, tsk, girlfriend!

She reportedly has been demanding six-figure appearance fees to show up at film festivals to promote Precious, and – gasp! – after failing to appear at both the Toronto and New York festivals, she was quoted as saying, “I couldn’t eat that Oscar. Everybody needs money, baby. That’s how we survive, right?”

It seems the actress is not too keen on playing the Hollywood game.

A few months ago she even said as much: “Any buzz is appreciated. The NAACP Image Awards, the Oscars, the SAG Award, the award they might want to give me down at the Maxine Waters’ Preparatory school, it’s always appreciated.

“But the moment [director Lee] Daniels said to me when we wrapped that movie, ‘You gave me what I needed,’ that was my Oscar.”

I guess Mo’Nique wants her work to speak for itself.

Or, she really wants to be paid.

Photo: PopCrunch.com.

A Thought About WPK

So I was watching a TiVod Melrose Place last night, and the thought occurred to me: Is Heather Locklear’s Amanda Woodward a partner at WPK, the PR firm where Ella (Katie Cassidy, pictured at right) works?

And if Amanda is the W in WPK, could Courtney Thorne-Smith’s Allison Parker be the P in WPK?

Mmm....

Photo: CWTW.com.

Update: Did I call it or what?

Turns out my thinking was right on the money....

Introducing Ellen Page, the Writer-Producer

Whip It’s Ellen Page is branching out into writing and producing with an HBO project called Stitch N’ Bitch.

Catchy, huh?

Page will write the single-camera comedy with Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat (pictured at right with Page) and Sean Tillmann (a.k.a. musician Har Mar Superstar). The three, who must’ve met and liked one another doing Whip It since they’re all in it, also will executive produce and may star.

The story will follow two hipster girls who move from Brooklyn to L.A. in the hopes of becoming artists.

Photo: AceShowbiz.

Not About Baking

Jennifer Lopez is taking a cue from one of her exes and renaming herself.

The artist f.k.a. J.Lo and Jenny from the Block is calling herself Lola these days, and this new alter ego is dropping a new Neptunes-produced, Pitbull-featuring song called “Fresh Out the Oven” likes it’s hot.

Only it isn’t. Actually, it could’ve been had it been about baking a cake. Irreverence would’ve made it stand out, Lola....

Click here and have a listen.

There has been buzz of a Lopez musical comeback for months now, but if I was her, I would’ve gone with this instead.

Photo: MrsGrapevine.com.

R.I.P. Master Penn

American fashion photographer Irving Penn died in Manhattan this morning. He was 92.

Penn was known for his classic, minimalist style and “compositional clarity.” His subjects were never seen running or jumping and were seldom cut off.

He first shot for Vogue in 1943, and his work soon rose to prominence in the fashion and art worlds. His prints still fetch huge sums at auction, such as his nude photo of Gisele Bündchen (pictured at right), which went for $193,000 at action last year.

During his career, Penn captured everyone from world figures to artists to celebrities such as Miles Davis, Spencer Tracy, and Pablo Picasso.

Photo: Vogue.co.uk.

Stuck in a Moment She Can’t Get Out of

One of the Decemberists I’m looking forward to the most is Peter Jackson’s long-awaited adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best-selling The Lovely Bones (out Dec. 11):



I really want to see Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) as Susie Salmon, the young girl who is sexually assaulted and murdered by her serial killer neighbor because I’m fairly confident she will anchor the movie beautifully.

(Stuck in the “in between,” Susie watches as her family members grieve her loss...and tries to prevent her sister from meeting the same awful fate.)

And I want to see Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz and Stanley Tucci in the film. Especially Tucci, who’s quietly and slowly generating some Best Supporting Actor buzz.

Dropping the Bitch Act

Shannen Doherty is re-inventing herself as a lady of comedy.

The actress is fed up with her bitch persona, so she’s putting the final touches on a reality-type show, reportedly to show her “lighter and funnier” side.

Ew – reality? She can do so much better than that.

Doherty will not only star in the project, tentatively titled Shannen (how inspired!), but she will also produce. She has apparently met with several networks.

Uh, call E!, dear.

Or better yet: Call your agent and tell them to get you on, I dunno, True Blood or something. I read the HBO hit show needs someone to play Debbie Pelt, the psycho ex-girlfriend of third-season player, the werewolf Alcide.

Photo: AskMen.com.

Nostalgia, Pt. 33

Oh, Michelle Branch – where are you?

You used to be “Everywhere,” but now I feel like I should say “Goodbye to You” for good.

I can barely “Breathe.”

Photo: TheCouchSessions.com.

Does This Mean One Day Jen and Angie Will Be Friendly?

Carrie Fisher has a new show on Broadway called Wishful Drinking in which she touches on her father Eddie Fisher’s controversial love life.

Eddie Fisher left the erstwhile Princess Leia’s mom, girl-next-door Debbie Reynolds, for maneater Elizabeth Taylor, remember?

Well, La Fisher has likened that legendary love triangle to nowadays' version of it...the one with Jennifer Aniston and Brangelina.

The actress says she approached Brad Pitt to make sure he was A-OK with the comparison, and he, she claims, had no problems with it. Aniston didn’t mind, either.

Didn’t Reynolds and Taylor eventually bury the hatchet? Does this mean there’s hope for a let-bygones-be-bygones moment in Aniston and Angelina Jolie’s future?

Only time will tell.

Photo: USAToday.com.

Here Comes Trouble

Kim Raver may not be clocking any time on 24 this season, but she’ll be busy raining on Owen and Cristina’s love parade on Grey’s Anatomy.

The medical drama has cast Raver as a new surgeon and a possible love interest for Kevin McKidd’s PTSD-afflicted doctor.

“Someone [is coming] to the hospital that [Owen] was connected to in his past, not his ex-fiancée, but it’s somebody we didn’t expect,” the actor teased a couple of months ago.

“I think it could get a little tricky, but exciting and interesting. Hopefully it will bring [Owen and Cristina] closer in the long run.”

Raver’s role on the show is recurring. She will make her first appearance at Seattle Grace on Nov. 12.

Photo: ProjectRungay.blogspot.com.

She’ll Kiss a Girl, But Will She Like It?

It’s not even sweeps yet.

Hayden Panettiere’s character on Heroes, Claire, is in college now, so, of course, that means she has to get to know herself.

Cue in the attention-grabbing same-sex experimentation.

On next Monday’s episode, Claire will explore her sapphic side with co-star Madeline Zima’s Gretchen.

Will this make me catch up with the once-hot show’s couple of episodes currently waiting in my TiVo queue? Perhaps, but I make no promises.

Now, on the other hand, if Adrian Pasdar was smooching, say, Jack Coleman....

Photo: EW.com.

Too Uncool, New York

Well, this is disappointing.

Actor-writer and satellite friend Jesse Archer allegedly was brutally manhandled by officers of the MTA Police Department last Friday after he did a cartwheel in the large, empty main room of Grand Central Station on his way home from a party.

Archer first was fined for “disorderly conduct,” but then, as he walked back to his friend – and uttered something to him about the cops (a dumb move, by which I mean Archer should have waited until the officers of the so-called law were well out of earshot and sight) – he was shoved to the ground and, from what I understand, roughed up until he passed out.

He woke up in a jail cell in his underwear – huh?! – and was let go at 3:30 a.m. with two summons for disorderly conduct and a piece of paper saying he needed hospital treatment but refused it. When he was unconscious, I guess.

I have not read any counterpoint to Archer’s account, but the onus is on the MTAPD. Any allegation of violence puts the ball on their court.

New York is supposed to be one of the greatest cities in the world, but too often, much too often do we read about such incidents still happening in the Big Apple. That it supposedly happened at the hand of men in uniform this time, well...it’s made the city a bit less welcoming.

Photo: Towleroad.com.

Will Lauren Graham Agree with Parenthood?

We all know Lauren Graham rocked as the coolest mom on TV while on Gilmore Girls.

And if you don’t then what’s your problem?

Now that Helen Hunt is apparently no longer in the running to replace the cancer-stricken Maura Tierney in NBC’s upcoming Parenthood, the role of single mom Sarah is up for grabs, and the powers that be have approached Graham to fill the void.

The actress reportedly has already met with Parenthood boss Jason Katims (Roswell, Friday Night Lights) to discuss the gig.

Fingers crossed over here!

Photo: About.com.

Update: Parenthood will agree with Lauren Graham.

The actress and NBC have signed, sealed, and delivered her deal to co-star on the show.

And I am just thrilled!

XXXOXXXO!

Always one to push the envelope, Gossip Girl is prepping a November episode featuring three major characters having sex, threeway-style.

Now word on who the frisky three, but click here for a few possibilities.

Look for the sex-charged episode on Nov. 9. You know you’ll want to.

Photo: EW.com.

The Traveler

Mark Wahlberg has signed on to star in a remake of the award-winning Icelandic thriller Reykjavik-Rotterdam, which, btw, is Iceland’s foreign language submission for next year’s Oscars.

Reykjavik-Rotterdam tells the story of a freight ship worker who is fired for smuggling alcohol and becomes a security guard, only to be roped back into one last criminal scheme by his best friend.

Ever the Renaissance man, Wahlberg also will produce the movie.

Up next, the actor will be seen in December’s The Lovely Bones.

Photo: QueSeraSara.wordpress.com.

You’re Gonna Get Rothd

Director/actor Eli Roth (Inglourious Basterds) is coming to thrill ya.

Actually, two of his movies are: Roth is hard at work on the scripts for his next two projects, a sci-fi movie called Endangered Species and a horror movie called Thanksgiving, which is is an expansion of a fake trailer Roth made for 2007’s film Grindhouse.

Machete, another fake trailer from that movie, is also getting the big-screen treatment.

But I digress.

Roth plans to shoot the films back to back, and is hoping to premiere his next film, the Louisiana-set exorcism film Cotton, at next year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Photo: TheCinemaSource.com.

Harry Gets Big (Screen) Treatment

The story of Prince Harry’s life is being readied for the silver screen, so of course, the question is who will play the royal in the project c.n.a. The Spare?

The first actor who came to mind, for the obvious ginger-haired reason, was Harry Potter star Rupert Grint.

But after further reflection I have to agree that Rupert Friend would, indeed, make a fine prince in waiting.

On a related note: Ouch, William. I bet you probably thought they’d biopic your a-- before they did Harry’s.

Photo: DailyMail.co.uk.

Back to the Drawing Board, Linds

That noise you hear is the sound of fashionistas booing Lindsay Lohan away from Paris Fashion Week.

The sometimes-actress’ first collection as artistic advisor for Ungaro received what can only be described as quite the panning yesterday.

Women’s Wear Daily called the Spring-Summer 2010 runway looks, which Lohan co-whatever it is she did, “an embarrassment.” (I’m no Tim Blanks, but they’re not that awful.)

The clothes, in fact, left “several people aghast,” said The New York Times, while noted French art director Fabien Baron told the Times, “Call the fashion police!”

Decked in a white dress, L2 walked the runway with designer Estrella Archs and was seen fighting off tears.

No word on whether they were tears of happiness, or if she was hoping a hole would open up at the end of the runway and swallow her whole.

Photo: UsMagazine.com.

Witnesses

For weeks now I have been wondering just how I could preview the upcoming Hugh Grant-Sarah Jessica Parker rich-urban-couple-out-of-love-hiding-out-from-bad-guys-in-the-country comedy Did You Hear About the Morgans? (due out on Dec. 18).

You see, I didn’t want to liken the movie to the similarly themed Tim Allen-Kirstie Alley-starring For Richer or Poorer. Too late, I guess....

As I began to type this post I thought I had it…but then I forgot, so I guess it had something to do with the fact that Grant and Parker are on the cover of the new Entertainment Weekly.

There’s even a cute little video of the stars’ shoot that’s way more charming than the com’s trailer.

Photo: MonstersAndCritics.com.

Watch Out for the Plane, the Plane!

Spoiler Alert!

Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry is planning something major for November sweeps: a neighborhood plane crash.

“It’s going to be my cliffhanger for the first half of the season,” he said of the tragedy, which, he adds, will “affect everyone’s lives.”

The story is still in the planning stages, so the particulars – including just who’ll be on board the small aircraft (and who’ll be in its path) – are still TBD. But, Cherry says, no housewives will be harmed in the making of this story line.

“I’d love to kill somebody ’cause that’s just what I do,” he added. “But the truth is, right now I don’t have anyone major dying.”

Househusbands, check yourselves.

Photo: FanPop.com.

M Does SNL

Leave it to the amazing Ryan Reynolds (and Lady GaGa) to lure Madonna back to TV’s Saturday Nght Live.

The Queen of Pop popped up in a Deep House Dish sketch that was “Oh my Lord” alright:



New York sooo agrees with M.

Oh, and Lady GaGa, you wish you were “hotter” than Madonna.

“What the hell is a disco stick,” indeed!

He’s So High

One of the buzziest films of the fall, Up in the Air, is a-comin’ – and it’s bringing George Clooney when it gets here.

The Jason (Juno) Reitman-directed festival darling opens in limited release on Dec. 4 before going wide on Christmas Day.

Check out the trailer, and see a shirtless Clooney lying on a hotel room floor flirting with Vera Farmiga (oh, and spot the scene shot on South Beach’s SoFi):



In Up in the Air, Clooney plays a corporate downsizer whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he’s about to reach 10 million frequent flyer miles...and just after he’s met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams.

I would like to reserve a seat now, please.

The One?

Rachel Bilson has landed a pivotal role in How I Met Your Mother’s 100th episode airing in January.

Show exec producer Craig Thomas has teased that the milestone episode would feature “some serious mother action,” adding that, “It’ll be the closest [we’ve] ever come to [discovering who the mother is].”

So now the question is: Is Bilson it, or is she another fake-out like Sarah Chalke and Jamie-Lynn Sigler?

Photo: Yahoo! TV.

Holy Poncho!

I’m worried about Betty Suarez.

ABC announced yesterday that Ugly Betty’s fourth season will now premiere on Oct. 16 instead of Oct. 9 as originally reported.

Now, I know most of the cast will be in...actually, is in the Bahamas this weekend shooting an episode that will air in November, so they may be unavailable to promote the show early next week, but still: combine this news with the fact that Ugly Betty now has a kiss-of-death Friday-night time slot, and smell the hot-off-the-press Mode.

This season’s do or die for the show.

So watch the two-hour premiere on Oct. 16 because, “This…[signaling with all five fingers, Amanda-style] needn’t be it for Ugly Betty!”

Photo: EW.com.

The Toys Are Back

Starting today, and for two weeks only, movie fans will be able to like, grindhouse (in 3-D, which makes me excited for a change) Toy Story and Toy Story 2.

As an added bonus, we will get an exclusive sneak peek at Toy Story 3, which is due out in theaters next summer.

I cannot wait to get to the theater!

Photo: GeekTyrant.com.

NBC Wants a J.J. Job

A new show from fan-favorite producer J.J. Abrams will call NBC home in 2010.

A bona fide bidding war among ABC, CBS, and NBC was declared for Abrams’ latest commodity, a new action-adventure centering on a couple of married spies (which smells of Mr. & Mrs. Smith to me).

Abrams has partnered with Josh Reims (Felicity, What About Brian) to write the one-hour thriller.

Another Abrams show, a half-hour medical comedy, recently went to Fox.

I’m not sure it is, but I sure hope that’s the long-in-the-works vehicle he was said to be preparing for Cheri Oteri (TV’s SNL).

Photo: TVGuide.com.

Rio Gets Olympic

Not even Oprah and the Obamas could help America fulfill its dreams of hosting the 2016 Olympic Games: the honor went to Rio de Janeiro today.

The announcement brought tears to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief several times in a news conference.

“Our hour has arrived,” he said. “It has arrived.”

Rio beat out Madrid, Spain, in the final round. Chicago, Illinois, for which the abovementioned MVPs were rooting, and Tokyo, Japan, were eliminated in earlier rounds.

Photo: CNN.com.

The List, Pt. 5

In: Andrew Wilson.

So Five Minutes Ago: Owen.

O-V-E-R: Luke.

Photo: The-Frat-Pack.com (Whip It).

Girl, Re-Invented

With today’s entertaining and female-empowered girls-at-the-roller-derby Whip It, Drew Barrymore the actress becomes Drew Barrymore the director.

How fitting that the beloved Hollywood vet should re-invent herself with a movie about re-invention.

Whip It, I’m sure, will not appease everyone‘s expectations, but I assure you Barrymore did a good job.

Sure, the movie’s not quite as X-treme as you’d imagine – but it needn’t be. Roller derby’s a competitive sport about going round and round in a rink – so there’s only so much you can do with that. I think that for her directorial debut, Barrymore has acquitted herself of harsher-than-needed criticism rather nicely.

As for the plot, the movie follows the story of a girl from a small town pursuing her big dreams.

Bliss (Juno’s Ellen Page) is a 17-year-old outcast going through the motions. She yearns for plenty more than she has going on, you know, for something more exciting than anything Bodine, Texas, has to offer – who wouldn’t, right? That includes the ephemeral pleasures of beauty pageantry, a world her mother (Marcia Gay Harden) is eager to see her conquer.

Our aptly named heroine finds her bliss in Austin, on a fateful shopping trip, in the form of the Hurl Scouts, a sisterhood of roller derby down-on-their-luck competitors.

Among the tough-chick likes of Maggie Mayhem (TV’s SNL’s Kristen Wiig) and Smashley Simpson (Barrymore herself), Bliss finds the opportunity to discover her passion and her strength and her own self.

She tries out for the team, winning a slot thanks to her petite aerodynamics – which in turn brings victory to the Scouts for a change, much to the pleasure of their put-upon coach (Andrew Wilson) – and starts telling lies to her parents to cover up her new hobby’s requirements.

Soon, she earns the nickname of Babe Ruthless, and becomes her own hero.

But, inevitably, after a while her two worlds collide, and Bliss has to decide what’s truly important in her life.

I liked and enjoyed Whip It. As far as I’m concerned, it is the ultimate-chick-flick-of-the-year-by-an-ultimate-chick movie.

My Rating ***

Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures.

M and Dave, Sitting at a Pizza Place…

Madonna went on Letterman last night, and boy did she make an entrance:



On the show to do some promotion – finally! – for her Celebration, M and Dave had themselves one of the more at ease conversations they’ve ever had, I think. They talked about a lot of things, including the dissolution of her marriage, leaving England, their kids, her penchant for sportsmen, and, whaddya know, what she likes on her pie.

Update: Others agree: it was a very fun interview.