Thursday, July 29, 2010

Ellen Out

Ellen DeGeneres has pulled a Sarah Palin...and gone and quit her duties as a judge on American Idol (just one season on the panel after replacing Paula Abdul).

“A couple months ago, I let Fox and the American Idol producers know that this didn’t feel like the right fit for me,” DeGeneres said through a statement. “I told them I wouldn’t leave them in a bind and that I would hold off on doing anything until they were able to figure out where they wanted to take the panel next.

“It was a difficult decision to make, but my work schedule became more than I bargained for. I also realized this season that while I love discovering, supporting, and nurturing young talent, it was hard for me to judge people and sometimes hurt their feelings. I loved the experience working on Idol, and I am very grateful for the year I had.

“I am a huge fan of the show and will continue to be.”

As Shocantelle Brown would say, “OKRR” then.

Photo: NYDailyNews.

Update 1: The person with the most buzz to take over DeGeneres next season?

Nope, not Justin Timberlake, or Jessica Simpson, but none other than Jennifer Lopez. Evidently, it’s a done deal.

Update 2: Steven Tyler is also in the running for a judges seat. At least thats what he said.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Call Him Coach Cheyenne

My No. 1 theater actor-cum-budding TV star crush, Cheyenne Jackson, is getting his Glee on.

The rising star
will take over for Idina Menzel as the new coach for Vocal Adrenaline, New Directions’ rivals, on the show’s upcoming second season.

I hope this doesn’t mean Chey won’t be appearing on 30 Rock every so often, too, next season – I enjoy him there as well.

Photo: InsideSoCal.com.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Just Because, Pt. 65

You’re kidding me with the
wet hotness, right Kellan Lutz?

Photo: Towleroad.com.
Gwyneth Goes Country

My favoritest Hollywood leading lady (yeah, that’s what she is), Gwyneth Paltrow, can do now wrong.

G.P. she can act, she can sing – check out Duets, and listen to her backup work on Sheryl Crow’s “It’s Only Love” – and she can GOOP. And I love it.

This fall, the multi-hyphenate will be back on the big screen in Country Strong, f.k.a. Love Don’t Let Me Down, playing the awards-buzzy role (said I) of a fading country singer hoping for career resurrection.


Since she can, the actress put her voice to work as well and has recorded the movie’s title single – because why not, right.

I gotta say I’m totally feelin’ it.

Photo: Vogue.com.


Update 1: The song has been taken down off the WWWs. I shall find it again.

Update 2: Perez Hilton has the song up on his site
The Muckraker

It’s official: Daniel Craig
will star as Mikael Blomkvist in David Fincher’s take on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, after all.

The actor will play the middle-aged journalist in the suspense-filled trilogy, the first installment of which will be released in December 2011.

The search for the saga’s heroine, hacker Lisbeth Salander, is ongoing – but you can count Carey Mulligan out of the running. The actress has gone on the record
to say she “can quash that rumor once and for all. It’s not going to be me.”

Photo: SassyPriscilla.typepad.com.
Soldier of Love

Charlie St. Cloud star Zac Efron is thinking about going to war.

The young’un is negotiating a starring role in The Lucky One.

The adaptation the Nicholas Sparks novel would
follow an Iraq war vet who believes he made it through three tours of duty thanks to a photograph he owns of a woman who’s a total stranger to him.

This being a Sparks work, he obviously tries to find the woman upon his return.

Photo: JustJared.BuzzNet.com.
Dan Who?

I’d never heard about Dan Dare until today, and you best believe that now that Sam Worthington is
attached to a movie about D2 I’m hitting the Google.

Hard.

OK, so he’s not a guy per se, but a comic-book character…. The blockbusting actor is in talks to star in a big-budget movie version of the English sci-fi character.

Dare was hugely popular in Britain in the 1950s, appearing each week in the Eagle comic. Together with his sidekick Digby, Dare would fight the evil Mekon week after week in its pages.

Evidently, Dare is quite the cult fave, so it’ll be interesting to learn more about ’im now that Worthington will bring him to handsome life.

Photo: SocialiteLife.CeleBuzz.com.
RiRi Comes Aboard

Rihanna, who’s like, beyond-rocking my bones these days thanks to Eminem’s “
Love the Way You Lie,” has joined Taylor Kitsch and Alexander SkarsgĂ„rd in the Battleship movie.

Peter Berg’s 2012 summer tentpole will mark the singer’s feature film debut.

I’m gonna bet she contributes a bangin’ song to the soundtrack.

Photo: People.com.
Howling On

Joe Manganiello, a.k.a. the werewolf Alcide on HBOs True Blood, a.k.a. the hottest addition to the show this season, will be back as a regular during Season 4.

Such studly good news, huh.

Photo: E! Online.com.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Capt. Jack Cheers

This is why Johnny Depp is such a star.

The actor took the time to shoot a special-for-Comic-Con video tease to
preview next summer’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stanger Tides, footage that, of course, was received with frenzied cheers – and that a few days later has the Internet buzzing as well.

Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow confirms, but then again doesn’t, that the fourthquel revolves around his character’s search for the fountain of youth while facing “varied and substantial dangers along the way, including but not limited to zombies, cutthroats, mermaids, and the vicious and vivacious PenĂ©lope Cruz.”



I really hope the movie, which opens next May, is half as clever as this tease.
A Fanboy Fantasy Come True

Linda Hamilton will play Zachary Levi’s mom next season on TV’s Chuck.

The show’s powers that be had been looking for the perfect lady to play the part, and over the weekend, at Comic-Con (natch), they announced they have settled on the erstwhile Sarah freakin’ Connor.

Hamilton will make her first appearance as Mary Bartowski on the Sept. 20 fourth-season premiere.

“Obviously, her body of work was important, but also knowing what this part was and the intensity that we were going to need, Linda was a natural fit,” said executive producer Josh Schwartz. “She’ll be [kicking ass] right out of the gate.”

Chuck’s upcoming season promises to deal with the mystery surrounding our hero’s mother, and the first episode back promises shocking. “By the end of the episode we are going to turn everything on its head with regard to who she is,” Schwartz’s fellow EP Chris Fedak said.

Here’s to hoping the actress brings her guns, if you know what I mean….

Photo: tumblr.com.

A New Movie, a New Hulk

Now that Edward Norton has been unceremoniously let go and will not be playing The Hulk in Joss Whedon’s Avengers, Marvel has announced, as presumed, that indie darling Mark Ruffalo will take over the role in the upcoming blockbuster.

A solid choice, IMHO.

Ruffalo joined his director and fellow cast members, including Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, and Jeremy Renner on stage at Comic-Con over the weekend for the announcement.

Nerdgasms ensued.

Photo: TimeInc.net.
Pretty Ballerina

How stunning does Natalie Portman promise to look in Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming Black Swan?

The actress plays Nina, a featured dancer in the New York City Ballet who finds herself locked in a web of competitive intrigue with a new rival at the company.

The film, co-starring Mila Kunis and Winona Ryder, will open the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 1.

Photo: HuffingtonPost.com.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Is This the Most Awesome Movie Yet to Open?

The 2010 Comic-Con is in full swing in San Diego and Disney took the opportunity to give nerdgasms to attendees this week when it unveiled the new trailer for the anticipated reboot/sequel TRON: Legacy opening on Dec. 17



Pretty frakkin’ cool, huh.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Life Without Sex?

Kristin Davis isn’t so sure there will be a third Sex and the City movie – and that, right now, I think could be a good thing since the first movie rocked...but this summer’s sequel didn’t at all.

“I don’t think [there will be a Sex and the City 3], not that I know of,” she said. “I wish it was so that we were continuing, but I don’t know.”

The actress hasn’t heard anything official, and is quick to point out poor box office performance or backlash aren’t impediments for the audience to get a Sex-y trilogy.

“We made $300 million internationally,” she said about Sex and the City 2, adding that the poorly received sequel might have been a product of too much buzz. “There was so much hype, not coming from us, but the media hyped it up and then they tore it down.”

I still say with good reason, but I would never discount the popularity of Carrie & Co., or the idea of seeing the ladies redeemed on the silver screen with a good (shorter) story.

Still, Davis maintains, “I could be wrong. Obviously, there was a time when we thought there was no movie happening so you never know. But it is not looking great.”

I say we give it time.... And then we let them bring the sex and the city back to Sex and the City.

Photo: Warner Bros.
So Excited I Could Scream!

I hate posting unofficial photos from movie sets, because they are invasive and whatnot, but every once in a while I gotta make an exception, especially when they tug at my geeky strings.

Check it out, it’s Courteney Cox on the set of the upcoming Scream 4 yesterday.

Totally exception worthy, right?

Next April cannot get here soon enough!

Photo: People.com.
What a Woman Won’t Do for Her Man

The upcoming drama Stone may be headlined all it wants by Robert De Niro and Edward Norton, but from the looks of the trailer, I’d say it’s someone else everyone will be talking about come Oct. 8.

That would be…Milla Jovovich.

The actress play’s Norton’s wife, a woman who seduces her convict husband’s corrections officer in an effort to blackmail the man into making sure the proceedings go through without glitch.

From the looks of the
trailer, Jovovich seems to hold her own opposite these two heavyweights.

Who knew!

Photo: NewKerala.com.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

She Spies

Angelina Jolie’s got your number, Tom Cruise.

The actress slinks into a role that was, at one point, tailor-made for the Cruiseter, in
Salt, a twisty blockbuster set in the intriguing spy world from Phillip Noyce, a director well-versed in all things thrilling (he did Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger).

The switch of the character’s gender (Edwin is now Evelyn) is an effectively slink, one that Noyce acknowledges may at one point have been considered “
outrageous” behind the scenes.

It works, though, because, as Salt, the
ever-evolving Jolie brings a little som’in’ som’in of herself to a role that could’ve been pretty one-note (no offense, Tom). She keeps us guessing.

The powers that be
worked hard to make Salt their “own new person” and reflect the complexities of a woman confronted with a situation that makes the audience wonder for a long stretch whether she’s good or bad.

That she’s a badass is never in question.

For the most part, they pulled off the conceit of a CIA officer accused of being a Russian sleeper spy – and set up Salt as a potential franchise – quite nicely. Sure, some of the pullings of the rug were a tad predictable, but, y’ know what, I enjoyed them all the same.

The plot is simple (it is summer, after all): Jolie plays this top CIA officer, right, who specializes in all things Russian. The movie opens with a flashback, to a torture scene at a North Korean prison that she endures without breaking cover. She has been disavowed, but eventually, one of her colleagues (Liev Schreiber, intense as always) comes to her rescue – at the behest of her husband who would stop at nothing to get her back.

This is one of a few of increasingly arbitrary flashbacks that reveal a little more about our heroine, betray our confidence in her, and uncover a wild conspiracy to strike at the United States in the worst way.

Two years after this harrowing experience, Salt is about to go home early to celebrate her anniversary when a walk-in defector accuses her of being a sleeper programmed as a child and sent stateside to assassinate the president.

It’s a veritable WTF moment for those around her – she’s been nothing but loyal to her country – and for her (or is it?), so she does the only thing she can do: run. She runs and puts to good use her training to elude capture, protect her family, and stay one step ahead of the agency so she can clear her name.

The problem is by doing so Salt may be proving exactly the charges on her head.

Nothing is what it seems in Salt, and I like that. It’s not the best movie of its kind, but it entertains – as a member of Team Aniston (I know, neither here nor there), I cannot wait to see Jolie reprise this role again soon…which is a bit of
a given.

My Rating ***

Photo: Sony Pictures.
Throwing on Her Louboutins

Halle Berry is treading into rom-com-ish territory.

The actress is set
to lead a sure-to-be-stylish ensemble in the adaptation of the best-selling novel Shoe Addicts Anonymous.

The movie, like the book, will follow four Chicago women who all wear size 7.5s and trade looks among themselves.

Shoe freaks everywhere are rejoicing right about now.

Photo: People.com.
Slaying the Rumor

Carey Mulligan wants Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fans she will not be playing Lisbeth Salander in the upcoming U.S. adaptation of the best-seller.

“I’m not, I’m afraid,” the Oscar nominee
said. “I can officially quash that rumor once and for all. It’s not going to be me. But I’m excited to see it. I love the books and I think it will be great.”

Daniel Craig is in talks to play the lead role, btw, which I hope does end up materializing because I love him so.

Up next for Mulligan are Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Never Let Me Go.

Photo: InterviewMagazine.com.
Trapped

The
teaser intrigued me, and now the trailer for Ryan Reynolds’ Buried has me on the edge of my freakin’ seat:


I’ll save you, Ry!

Buried will begin arriving in theaters on Sept. 24 before going wide in October. I cannot wait.
Couple Confirmed

Chelsea Handler confirmed on last night’s Tonight Show that she is, indeed, dating ridikolously hot guy Dave Salmoni from the Animal Planet.

I am sooo jealous right now.

Photo: PhotoBucket.com.
A Chucking Return

Uh oh, Nicole Richie’s up to her old guesting-on-Chuck tricks....

The former Hollywood hellcat pretty much rocked it out when she appeared on the show a couple of years ago, and now comes word that girlfriend will reprise her role as Sarah’s (Yvonne Strahovski) high school nemesis next season.

Meow!

Richie will resurface in October when a prison transfer goes awry and her character ends up being stowed away at Chuck (Zachary Levi) & Co.’s underground CIA base. And since she’s such a bitchin’ troublemaker, she will see that Chuck and Sarah’s deepening relationship is hitting some bumps and will use that rift to her advantage.

What...a beeyotch.

Photo: People.com.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Hollywood Gives It Up to George

Sexiest Man Alive (twice!) George Clooney
will be honored at the Emmy Awards next month when the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presents him with the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.

The award goes to someone whose humanitarian work has brought credit to the industry and has had a lasting impact on society.

The actor has been committed to increasing awareness of human rights issues around the globe, from his mission to stop genocide in Darfur, to his efforts to quickly mobilize the industry in the wake of Sept. 11, the Indian Ocean tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina. He most recently brought everyone together the Hope For Haiti Now telethon.

“George was an obvious choice for this honor,” an Academy statement said. “He has understood and harnessed the power of television, the most powerful medium of our time, to reach into the hearts of people around the world and compelled us to action on behalf of those in sudden and desperate need as well those tragically oppressed in Darfur.”

And he’s done it looking mighty fine in the process.

Photo: TrumpetSound.com.
Team Aniston’s Official Scent

Well, the fragrance f.k.a. Lolavie is finally here.

Jennifer Aniston launched her very first, now-eponymous
scent at the Harrods department store in London.

“I’m so excited to have worked on this,” the actress
said. “It’s a combination of my favorite scents – the ocean, sea air, blooming jasmine, and tropical oils.

“It’s my memories of California nights in the summer.”

Loves it! Almost as much as the Valentino dress Aniston rocked to the event. Sooo sexy….

Photo: People.com.
Cool Girl, Cool Assignment

Multi-hyphenate hot girl – she’s an actress, an author, a model, as well as an animal crusader –
Olivia Munn is getting to Chuck.

Munn, whose latest gig is correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,
will guest on the underappreciated spy comedy’s fourth-season premiere this fall, an episode that will also feature Dolph Lundgren, btw.

She’ll play an oh-so-cool-and-smart, and, natch, gorgeous CIA agent who intimidates and schools Chuck (Zachary Levi) and Morgan (Joshua Gomez).

Later in the year, Munn will star on NBC’s midseason comedy Perfect Couples.

Photo: TheStranger.com.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

When the Past Isn’t in the Past

This December, Helen Mirren is looking back.

In
The Debt (due out on Dec. 29), the Oscar winner plays a former Mossad agent who must revisit a decades-old mission that led – or did it? – to the death of a notorious Nazi war criminal.

The intensely watchable Sam Worthington co-stars as a fellow agent in a series of flashbacks.

Check out the movies intense trailer here.

Photo: EW.com.
Raising the Bar

Michael Ealy is going to court.

The FlashForward alumnus is
joining the cast of TV’s The Good Wife this fall as the head of the D.C. firm that’s merging with Lockhart & Gardner.

Ealy’s character is described as a “casual, soft-spoken attorney whose egalitarian beliefs [clash] with Will (Josh Charles) and Diane’s (Emmy nominee Christine Baranski) self-serving practices.

Too boot, “under his pleasant and unassuming exterior, he has a steel-trap mind and can outmaneuver his most cunning adversaries and/or associates, “ and, “deeply impressed with Alicia’s (Emmy frontrunner – IMHO – Julianna Margulies) quiet competence, he becomes her newest mentor.”

The actor has signed on for at least 10 episodes of the show‘s second season.

Photo: UMN.edu.

Update: On a related note, Friday Night Lights’ Scott Porter is also joining the show as a professional and quite likely personal foil to the deliciously mysterious Kalinda (Emmy nominee Archie Panjabi).

Like Ealy, he is expected to stick around for about 10 episodes.

Porter better bring his best to the role. Kalinda, as played by Panjabi, could eat him up shoes and all....

Monday, July 19, 2010

Just Because, Pt. 64

Darn, does Jon Hamm got back!

The Mad Men actor looked smokin’ as he cooled down at a photo shoot in L.A. over the weekend.

He looks as hella fine as I remember him – I met last year at an event in Miami when I pretended not to know who he was for a bit as I bummed a ciggie.

Photo: People.com.
Simply Irresistible, Pt. 69

Forget Jacob Black, already – you want a real werewolf, watch True Blood this season.

I knew
Joe Manganiello’s Alcide would be a most fun, sexy welcome addition to the cast – as is Grant Bowler’s Coot, btw – but last night’s episode, in which Manganiello paraded around shirtless in nothing but tracksuit pants for a bit, was too hot to handle.

Ditto this behind-the-scenes look at his photo shoot for Muscle & Body magazine is just ridikolous:

The Island Keeps on Teasin’

Lost is over and done…or is it?

The upcoming sixth-season DVD of the Emmy-winning and -nominated show is coming out later in August, and it’ll feature an original, 12-minute vignette called “The New Man in Charge.”

If you saw the finale in May, then you know that man ended up being – Spoiler Alert! – Hurley (Jorge Garcia), and that Ben (Michael Emerson) became his No. 2.

But, in typical Lost fashion, that’s all we were told, so this vignette (not to mention whatever else is included as an extra) is a total must.

“Ben is going around to Dharma installations and closing some down,” Emerson (pictured here, at left) recently
teased. “There are some good surprises. It does answer questions.”

Good, I like that….


Photo: EW.com.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Two Dudes on the Road

Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis make for a very unlikely duo.

Nevertheless, the duo has teamed up for a road-trip comedy titled Due Date from The Hangover’s Todd Phillips.

Downey plays a man trying to make it to an L.A. hospital in time to witness his child’s birth, while Galifianakis is the hilarious oddball who makes things go wonky:


Due Date is due out on Nov. 5.
The Xverse Gets Bacond

The cast of Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class is getting connected to just about everyone else in Hollywood now that Kevin Bacon has joined them.

The actor will play a villain, sparring against protagonists Charles Xavier, played by James McAvoy, and Michael Fassbender’s Magneto. No word on just who Bacon’s character is specifically, or how he’ll figure into the Xverse yet, though.

On a related note, buzzy up-and-comer Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) will play Mystique.

Production on the blockbuster is set to begin in London this summer.

Photo: JollyPeople.com.
Dr. Feel Good

James Tupper, formerly of Men in Trees and Mercy, is checking into Grey’s Anatomy to help the traumatized staff deal with the events of last season’s finale.

The actor will play a trauma counselor – for at least two episodes – brought in to help Seattle Grace recover from the shocking bloodbath.

I’m not sure I could concentrate on my feelings with such a hottie in front of me, but I can’t wait to see Tupper offer a shoulder to lean on....

Photo: EToday.ru.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Dreamworld

Having seen
Inception early – jealous? – I can safely and responsibly say that you’re going to have to think of the film, most definitely, as a trip.

This, of course, means its director,
Christopher Nolan, is your cruise director. The Dark Knight helmer has, for lack of a better way to put it, dreamed up a world in which we can go into characters’ dreams, and the dreams within the dreams, and the dreams within the dreams within the dreams. It’s quite a ride.

Now, I didn’t say it would be an easy trip to take, and that’s because I’d much rather think of it as a most cerebral one.

The plot of Inception has been shrouded in secrecy since Day 1, I don’t think because it’s necessarily difficult to follow – although, I will concede, it can pose a bit of a challenge if people don’t focus – but because it revolves around such a far-out idea....

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Dom Cobb, a skilled thief and the bestest at stealing valuable secrets from deep within a mark’s subconscious during the dream state when their mind is at its most vulnerable. This is called extraction.

His is a rare ability that has made him a coveted player in this high-stakes new world of corporate espionage. It also has made him an international fugitive and cost him everything and everyone he’s ever loved.

As it often happens in this sort of film, Cobb is offered a shot at redemption and a clean slate. All he has to do is pull off one last job, one that could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible – inception.

Yep, he has to plant an idea in a mark’s mind, which is considerably harder and requires more layers of work. See, to pull off this type of job, these dream infiltrations, Cobb and his team, which include an architect of dreamscapes and a forger of identities within them, have to create a world for the mark to do their thing in, a world they can enter and manipulate in order to get, or introduce, new information.

The problem is anyone who goes into these dreamworlds faces dangerous...eventualities, some of which are created by the mark, some of which are manifestations of their own minds. In Cobb’s case, the danger is all-too familiar, beautiful, and full of baggage.

I think I’ve said too much, so I’ll close with this: See Inception, pay attention to it, be dazzled by the scenarios Nolan has come up with and his cast (which includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page), try to resist newcomer Tom Hardy, who pretty much steals ever scene he’s in, and don’t let the ending melt your brain more than it needs to. This is supposed to be a fun trip, after all. The journey is what matters most.

My Rating ***

Photo: Warner Bros.
The Fairy

Perfect Casting Alert!

The beautiful, funny, and oh-so-sexy Elizabeth Banks
will play Tinkerbell in Tink, a live-action rom-com from Disney.

This could not sound any more like Enchanted (which everyone hearted) – and like, I’m so there.

The movie will “play with the mischievous nature of the Tinkerbell character,” and, hello, who embodies feminine mischief better than Banks? Did you see her in The 40-Year-Old-Virgin or just recently on TV’s 30 Rock? She’s perf!

Photo: Operatorchan.org.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

A Must Read That Reminds Me of a TV Show I Once Loved

They say that no two things are created equal (or something like that), and the same holds true of books.

Some are more event-y than others, natch (Harry, Bella & Co., I’m talking about y’all), and so it seems that is the way the powers that be want us to think about the highly anticipated upcoming young-adult novel I Am Number Four.

The tome is the first in a series of books about a teenage alien (one of nine on Earth) on the run for his life from malicious forces. It was...uhh...written by Pittacus Lore, an elder alien from the planet Lorien widely believed to be the extraterrestrial nom de plume of authors James Frey and Jobie Hughes.

I Am Number Four already is on the Hollywood radar and will be turned into a movie starring Sharlto Copley (District 9, The A-Team) and Kevin Durand (TV’s Lost). And it is, indeed, so event-y it even has inspired its own trailers.

Here’s a teaser:



And over here is the brand new full trailer.
That’s Professor White, Punk

Ain’t no stoppin’ Betty White now.

The hotter-than-ever Golden Girl will leave basic cable, where she’s smoking on TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland, to guest (and earn herself another Guest Actress Emmy nod for 2011, obvs) on the second-season premiere of NBC’s Community.

The actress
will play June Bauer, “an esteemed, albeit slightly unhinged, anthropology professor.”

This piece of casting gets an A+, IMHO.

Photo: TVLand.com.
Can I Rub It, Can I Rub It?

Awww….

Ryan Reynolds
hurt himself on the set of the Green Lantern movie yesterday.

The actor, who’s playing the DC Comics superhero, separated his shoulder and “is in lots of pain.”

One more time for the cheap seats in the back: Awww!

“He’s been keeping ice on it.”

One more time, hit it: Awww!

Get well soon, Ry – and call me if you need some TLC.

Photo: PollsB.com.


Update 1: Evidently, Reynolds’ injury was overblown and totally minor and occurred while he was off the set training for the movie, and production wasn’t affected like, at all.

I think speak for the world when I say I’d still like to rub it, though, and make sure it’s all fine. It’s the neighborly thing to do....

Update 2: Speaking of R2 and Green Lantern, check out this first (H-O-T) look at the actor in character on the cover of the latest Entertainment Weekly.

Smokin’ much?
Just Because, Pt. 63

He’s a royal and he likes puppies – could Prince Harry get any more adorable?

The puppy – an 8-week-old “superdog,” a pooch taught to help the disabled – sure gave the guy a good run for his pounds in the cute department at an event in England yesterday.

Woof!

Photo: People.com.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Casados!

And Spain has yet another reason to celebrate....

Undercover lovers Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem have made it official.

The Spanish power couple reportedly exchanged vows in front of family members during a small, private ceremony held at a friend’s home in the Bahamas earlier this month. Cruz wore a gown designed by longtime friend John Galliano.

The Oscar winners have been together since 2007. They first met in the early 1990s when they worked on Jamon, Jamon together.

Felicitaciones!

Photo: Babble.com.

Update: On a related note, it turns out Javier Bardem will not be appearing on Glee next season, after all.

Well, at least not during the first half of the shows sophomore season.

“I think you have to come back and remeet the characters [first],said show mastermind Ryan Murphy of the rumor.
Simply Irresistible, Pt. 68

His name is
Tom Hardy – and he steals all of his scenes in Inception.

A good thing since he plays a skilled thief of secrets that are buried deep down in a person’s subconscious.

I don’t know if it was the stubble, the lips, or the accent, but whatever it was it was H-O-T, and I can safely say a star is now officially born.

Photo: Nolanfans.com.
Glee Gets Britd

After some campaigning on Twitter, Britney Spears is getting her wish of seeing Glee give her the same treatment it gave Madonna last spring: her own episode.

To make matters even better (and quotable!), the episode – the second one back next season – will revolve around New Directions’ scene-stealing Brittany (Heather Morris).

“Heather’s actually got a terrific voice,”
said show mastermind Ryan Murphy.

I guess we’ll find out just how terrif in the fall (Glee
comes back on Sept. 21).

Photo: CoventryTelegraph.com.
M As the Ultimate Italian Woman

More photos from Madonna’s latest campaign for Dolce & Gabbana have hit the Web, and they look good.

For Fall/Winter 2010, M is playing a character inspired by her icon, Italian actress Anna Magnani.

The campaign is supposed to take place in an unspecified Italian city and the country’s family life as seen through the eyes of this oh-so-stylish woman (here, she’s going for a strut down la strada with her son).

In this latest shot, she’s getting fitted for a night on the town. Obviously.

Photo: NYMag.com.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Not Seeing Green Anymore

Not that anyone was betting on it, but it’s official: Ed Norton will not be reprising his role as Bruce Banner/Marvel’s Hulk in Joss Whedon’s Avengers movie.

The role will be recast (yet again; Norton took over for Eric Bana, who starred in Ang Lee’s moody take on the character a few years ago), and, evidently, the move is surrounded by drama.

Marvel’s president of Production has said the decision was “definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members.”

Ooof – what…a dig.

Norton’s camp counters that such comments are “unprofessional, disingenuous, and clearly defamatory,” and that, too boot, the charitable actor and Whedon recently had a “very good meeting,” but that the deal fell apart after weeks of “civil, uncontentious discussions.”

The cast of 2012’s The Avengers includes Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.

They’ll be joined by Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and, possibly, Don Cheadle as War Machine.

Photo: Examiner.com (The Hulk).
Kings of Porn

Luke Wilson, Giovanni Ribisi, and Gabriel Macht are the Middle Men.

Nope – that’s not a new band of superheroes – not the traditional kind, anyway – coming to a movie theater near you ready to thrill and awe your pants off.

They do want to get your pants off, though. In a way.

In the mid-1990s-set movie opening on Aug. 6, Wilson & Co. play a trio of Internet-porn pioneers caught in a game involving a 23-year-old porn starlet, the FBI, conmen, mobsters, and a shady senator played by Kelsey Grammer.

Check out the
red-band trailer, which is quite NSFW, btw:

Diamond Girl

What…a homerun.

Amber Riley, a.k.a. Glee’s powerhouse-voiced Mercedes, will kick off this year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game in California tomorrow.

The actress
will sing several songs, including “The Star-Spangled Banner,” before the game begins.

Colbie Caillat also will be part of the lineup and will perform “God Bless America” during the seventh inning stretch.

Photo: HometownHollywood.com.
Spanish Lesson

The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa is over, and the big trophy is going to Spain.

Paul the Octopus was right...and he can breathe easy – he won’t be paellad.

The Spanish team won its first World Cup late in nail-biting overtime when midfielder Andres Iniesta scored a goal that put his countrymen ahead of the Dutch in the final at Soccer City.

All and all, it was a pretty lame-o game – I mean, when mimosas hold your attention more you know the excitement isn’t on the field.

All in all, though, the tournament brought the world together for a month, for the most past, brought out the sexy, gave us vuvuzelas, made us “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” and made a star out of a tentacled oracle (is he doing personal consultations?).

Photo: NJ.com.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Wolf on This

I just knew the guy would do A-OK.

TV’s Next Big, Already Hot Thing Taylor Kinney (Trauma) has joined The Vampire Diaries in the recurring role of Mason Lockwood, late Mayor Lockwood’s (werewolf-y?) younger brother.

Described as Tyler’s (Michael Trevino) cool uncle, Mason is sexy and athletic and quite charming, but can “flip in an instant” if crossed.

Now, The Vampire Diaries has a knack for casting hot guys (hi, Sean Faris! hey there, David Anders!), so this is pretty par for the course, but we’ve all have, or should have seen Kinney’s abs, so I can only imagine the visual goody goody gum drops we’re in for come fall.

Photo: SuperiorPics.com.

Friday, July 09, 2010

Who Turned On the Heat!

And LeBron James closes the triangle.

The NBA superstar is coming to Miami from Cleveland to join staying-put Dwyane Wade (pictured at right, on the right) and Chris Bosh (on the left), who’s coming to the Magic City from...somewhere, on the Miami Heat roster because the team represented the “best opportunity for me to win.”

Everyone is excited about the news, and I do mean everyone, from Jack and Jane on the street to Jeff Soffer, the owner of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach to Diddy.

Photo: Cleveland.com.

Pacing Over to HBO

The wonderfully watchable Lee Pace, the star of the mich-missed Pushing Daisies, has joined the cast of HBO’s drama pilot Miraculous Year.

The actor joins a cast that also includes ex-Law & Order ADA Linus Roache, cool-named Stark Sands (Generation Kill), Tony winner Eddie Redmayne, Hope Davis, Frank Langella, and Patti LuPone.

Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow is exec producing and directing the pilot for the series, which is described as an examination of a New York family as seen through the eyes of a charismatic, self-destructive Broadway composer.

Photo: GuestOfAGuest.com.

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Emmy Gets It Mostly Right For a Change

The
Emmy Awards nomination were announced at the crack this morning, and boy, were they on point this year.

Announcer Sofia Vergara, who looked smokin’ in a tight blue little number (check her out here), and one of the season’s breakouts for her work on TV’s Modern Family, scored a nod in the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy race – sorry other announcer, Joel McHale (Community)…better luck next year.

That little bit of news, though, came at the end of the announcement, following the Amazing Event: Friday Night Lights’ Kyle Chandler and
Connie Britton are, at last, Emmy nominees.

That, to me, was the morning’s touchdown – an oh-so-hard fought for four years. I think about it and I smile.

The dearly departed
Lost also got some Emmy love, receiving 12 nominations, including Best Drama, Lead Actor for Matthew Fox, Supporting Actor for the dynamic duo of Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson, and a Guest Actress nod for Elizabeth Mitchell’s nuanced reprise of Dr. Juliet Burke.

Well earned, Team Darlton & Co.!

The outpouring of love for
Modern Family was terrif, no so much Fringe’s snubs. Ditto the lack of love for Cougar Town star Courteney Cox (who’s the only Friends cast member who never was nominated for that show, either).

Still, though, Emmy did me mostly proud to be a TV watcher, especially when the powers that be recognized The Good Wife’s three actresses, Julianna Margulies, Christine Baranski, and
Archie Panjabi, who’s just exquisite.

And, can we give it up for Queen D Kathy Griffin, who’ll have another chance to add a third Emmy to her collection for her Bravo show? Or for the incomparable Betty White, who was singled out for her hosting SNL? How about we just give the hardware to the latter, already?

Photo: NYTimes.com.
Re-GaGa-rgitation

So Lady GaGa is going to release a CD full of remixes in the United States on Aug. 3.

Yeah – of songs she’s already re-released. The Fame Monster was an extended version of The Fame, not a new album, no matter what anyone wants to tell me. OK….

The Remix was released internationally last spring. The set’s American version will include 10 reconfigured tracks, covering the singer’s…uh…vast repertoire, from “Just Dance” to “Telephone.”

Photo: EW.com.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

An Award for Cumming

Tony Award-winning actor Alan Cumming will receive the 2010 National Leadership Award on Oct. 2 at the annual Task Force Recognition Dinner in Miami Beach.


The fundraising event recognizes individuals for their outstanding contributions to the social, cultural, political, and humanitarian needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.

The Task Force will present the 2010 Humanitarian Award to Miami-Dade County Commissioner Katy Sorenson, and the 2010 Eddy McIntyre Community Service Award to Cindy Brown, a tireless supporter of many South Florida LGBT and HIV/AIDS organizations.

“Alan has been an outspoken and tenacious advocate for civil rights and HIV/AIDS causes for more than a decade,” said Rea Carey, executive director of the Task Force. “He has used his talent and his success to support the LGBT community and to effect real change in the world.”

Yeah, and he looks damn cute in a kilt and guyliner.

“We are thrilled to have this opportunity to honor him,” Carey added.

I’m happy for Cumming. With luck he can add “Emmy nominee” to his kudos for the week (for his guest work on TV’s The Good Wife) when the nominations for those awards are announced in the morning.

Photo: The Task Force.