Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Are You Kidding Me with This Hotness?

I think I love Interview magazine more today than I ever did before.

I mean...take a gander at the stunning job Steven Klein did in making Alexander Skarsgård look even more freaking H-O-T for the magazines latest cover (GQ has been outdone).

Yeah, yeah, he has plenty to say within, too, but it’s all about the Skars-gaze.

Oof!

Photo: InterviewMagazine.com.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Joining the Mission

Rebecca Mader, a.k.a. Charlotte on Lost, will be back on TV this summer.

Alas, only for one episode of USA Network’s Cover Affairs.

I’ll take, though – I enjoy the lady so.

Mader will play a flight attendant whom Auggie (Christopher Gorham) meets on a vacation-turned-mission, and, as it would happen, when this things get all spy-like and s--- she agrees to help the guy out.

Sparks will undoubtedly fly.

Photo: VegasNews.com.
Riding Around Town

Robert Pattinson is growing up, Twihards, so get used to it.

The actor, who’s been trying to find his footing outside Forks, Wash., with offerings like Remember Me and Water for Elephants, is starring in David Cronenberg’s upcoming adaptation of Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis.

The heartthrob plays a financial wunderkind who spends a day crisscossing Manhattan, risking a fortune on the biggest gamble of his career and coming across unforeseen dangers of all kinds. Or som’in’ like that.

Photo: MTV.com.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

The Girl (and Her Tat) Is Coming

The countdown has officially begun.

Well, unofficially.

A look at the red-band trailer for the upcoming David Fincher-directed, Rooney Mara-and-Daniel Craig-starring Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has leaked, so watch it while you can, people, because it looks like noir awesomeness (I bet the powers that be will be taking it down ASAP):


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is due out on Dec. 21.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Boy By the Shore

Justin Bartha is headed back to the New York stage.


The actor, who is featured in The Hangover Part II (although you wouldn’t know it from my review – he got even less to do this time around!), is set to star in a new, Zach Braff-penned Broadway comedy titled All New People.

Bartha, who appeared in Lend Me a Tenor last season, will play a brokenhearted 35-year-old seeking solitude on the Jersey Shore but finding instead a group of misfits who totally change his midwinter plans.

Previews are set to begin on June 28 for a July 25 opening.

Photo: TVGuide.com.
An Assistant to the Wizard

Zach Braff is ready for his comeback.


The actor is taking a trip to Oz for his post-Scrubs return to the spotlight, and will co-star alongside James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, and Rachel Weisz in Sam Raimi’s Wizard of Oz prequel, which is now titled Oz: The Great and Powerful.

Braffs character will serve as an assistant to Francos snake-oil huckster-turned-witch-battling man behind the curtain.

Photo: People.com.
Working Lady

This September, Sarah Jessica Parker will channel Carrie Bradshaw circa the first season of Sex and the City for I Don
’t Know How She Does It.

The fall entry that has SJP well dressed and well heeled, once again playing New Yorker.

This time, though, she’s a harried career woman/mother with too much on her plate, who, much like Carrie in those early eps, breaks the fourth wall to talk directly to the audience:


The light sitdram, which is based on a novel by Alison Pearce, co-stars Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Christina Hendricks, SNLs Seth Meyers, and Olivia Munn, and opens on Sept. 16.
The Salesman

The upcoming Total Recall remake just got Cho.

John Cho.

The actor is on board for the Colin Farrell-starring project that Len Wiseman is directing, joining a star-studded cast that already includes Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel as Farrell’s wife and gf, respectively, as well as Bryan Cranston (AMC’s Breaking Bad) as the villain.

Cho will play the smooth-talking rep that sells Farrell on the fantastic-memories brain implant that sends him on an adventure of life and death.

Photo: GQ.com.
Summer Man

A couple of years ago, Ryan Reynolds left me pretty much breathless when he and his lickalicious six-pack graced the cover of Entertainment Weekly
’s Must List Issue. It was a thing of beauty. Trust.

This year, his Change-Up co-star, Jason Bateman, is getting the same treatment for the magazine’s Best of Summer Issue.

The story within touches on what’s coming up for the actor this summer, including the comedy I just mentioned with R2 and the ensemble Horrible Bosses out in July, as well as his Emmy-winning TV cult hit Arrested Development, and much, much more.

The best part is Bateman posed for not one, not two, not three, but four different covers.

The one at right is the sexiest (for myriad reasons, chief among them that smile), and my favorite.

Photo: EW.com.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Bridesmaids Uncensored

O.

M.


Check out this completely NSFW alternate takes from the comedy of the season, people. They. Are Hilarious:

The Family Man

Has it really been since Sideways that I
’ve seen an Alexander Payne film?

If so it’s been a while, huh.

Payne will be back on screens this fall with The Descendants, starring George Clooney.

Awards Bait Alert!

In the promising-looking dramedy Clooney plays a father trying to reconnect with his two daughters in the wake of a boating accident his wife has been in...an event that opens a can of secrets he never ever saw coming. Check out the trailer here.

Looks like someone better start dusting off his tux for the Oscars....

Photo: OKMagazine.com.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The Axed Factor

Well that was fast.

Sorry, Cheryl Cole, but your dream of taking America will have to wait, darling.

The Brit has been bumped from the judges table of the upcoming American version of The X Factor, reportedly due to a lack of chemistry with fellow judge Paula Abdul. Rumor has it her thick Geordie accent was also to blame.

Nicole Scherzinger, who was previously announced as one of the competition’s two co-hosts (the other is another Brit, that cutie who goes by Steve Jones), will replace Cole on the panel led by show mastermind Simon Cowell.

Betcha N. Scher went all dont cha on producers and urged them to keep the job American.

Photo: ShoppingTheTrend.com.
A Tale of Two Sisters

I said it once before and I will totally say it again: Sarah Michelle Gellar’s return to the tube, Ringer, looks like good, good stuff:


As you can see, SMG will play two very different women in the CW offering premiering this fall. Twin sisters who could not be more different from each other. Which, IMHO, means double our pleasure.

I wonder which one I will root for the most....
Romeo-d?

Ed Westwick is leaving the Upper East Side of TV
’s Gossip Girl to join Hailee Steinfeld in a new take on Romeo and Juliet.

Yep, Chuck Bass is going for full-on romance.

But, and this a big but (and I cannot lie), the actor will not be playing Romeo but his cousin, Tybalt.

Which begs the question: O, Actor Who Will Play Romeo, Actor Who Will Play Romeo – where you at?

Photo: GQ.com.
Waking Up in Bangkok

The Wolfpack is back, and just like last time, the boys can
’t remember a thing about last night.

Yep, the guys from the Golden Globe-winning The Hangover are giving it another go – all the main players, including director Todd Phillips, and stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and the original’s comedic breakout, Zach Galifianakis, have reunited for our Memorial Day enjoyment to bring us the promises-to-be-epic Hangover Part II, which is a completely fun but also totally by-the-numbers sequel.

Seriously, if I hadn’t been so in the mood for a laugh I would have found this part deux to be quite lazy. Which – Hindsight Alert! – it kinda is.

I mean, the basic structure and all the basic flagpoles that made the first one so original and successful are there, disguised to accommodate the (lack of new) plot and the new setting, but, y’ know, there.

Obviously, we have to have Phil (Cooper), Stu (Helms), and Alan (Galifianakis, looking at times a little annoyed about the business of doing the sequel, which he sounded in an interview I read), but that’s not where the similarities end.

There’s a wedding (this time it’s Stu who’s walking down the aisle, having divorced Heather Graham’s Vegas pole worker, to marry a new character, a sweetheart girl named Lauren played by Jamie Chung), and it’s a destination wedding at a luxe resort in Thailand (thats where the bride’s conveniently from), so, there’s gotta be a bachelor party, right?

Not if Stu has anything to say about it (he kinda doesn’t want to get roofied again, which is understandable), but, really, c’mon, his pals say, that is some bulls--- I’m paraphrasing here – especially since they have to make it all the way out to Asia.

In any case, the group agrees to take it easy, and to take Alan with them, which is not something Stu wants to do, but it means so much to the schlub he eventually says it’s alright.

As it would happen, one tame thing leads to another wilder thing, and pretty soon they’re all having a ginormous WTF Moment all over again.

They wake up in a seedy, roach-infested Bangkok hotel.

Theyre all worse for the wear. One of them now has a shaved head, another a Tyson-esque face tat. Oh, and there’s a drug-dealing, cigarette-smoking monkey bouncing around. Someone’s lost a finger. And, just for extra credit, Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong, from TV’s Community), the Chinese mobster from the first movie, is there with his big bag of BS (and blow).

And, oh yeah, Teddy (Mason Lee), Stu’s prodigy, 16-year-old future brother-in-law (and his future, and disapproving, father-in-law’s pride and joy), is nowhere to be found.

Just like before, the clueless Wolfpack has to figure what, indeed happened to them the night before. Hilarity and all kinds of raunchiness ensue...but not a heckuva lot of originality, unfortch.

For that I will point you in the direction of Bridesmaids.

Sorry, Wolfpack. You’ll do well, I’m sure. You’ve not delivered a Sex and the City 2-type turkey, but you haven’t outdone yourself – you’ve only imitated yourself well enough to get away with it.

My Rating ***

Photo: Warner Bros.
Simply Irresistible, Pt. 76

Kim Kardashian is engaged to this guy, and I say good. For. Her!

Meet (most of) New Jersey Nets player Kris Humphries, whos featured in the June issue of GQ, and get ready to see more of the hunk ’cause you know K2 is going to cash in on this weeding big time.

President and CEO of the Lucky Club, that Kim....

Photo: UsMagazine.com.
Almost Time for It

The Twilight Saga is coming to an end, or, actually, it will start to come to an end this November.

Finally.

I keed, I keed, Twihards.

Kinda. I mean, look, we’ve already been teased with a shot of Bella and Edward in the throes of passion, and now here’s a look at The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1’s oh-so-evocative teaser poster.

A new day will come, huh.

Photo: EW.com.
Stamos to the Stage, Stamos to the Stage

Well, I guess you really can
’t stop the beat.

Hairspray is headed back to the stage for a limited engagement at the Hollywood Bowl.

Harvey Fierstein and Marissa Jaret Winokur will reprise the roles they played in the crowd-pleasing Broadway adaptation from a few years ago, while John Stamos has been cast as Corny Williams, the charismatic TV-show host.

Meanwhile, Nick Jonas is set to take the Link Larkin baton from Zac Efron (who portrayed the heartthrob in the 2007 movie) for the show, which will run in August.

Photo: FilmSchoolRejects.com.
Off the Beat

Gasp!

Det. Stabler has gone and quit the Special Victims Unit.

Well, I don’t know if that will hold truth, plot-wise, when Law & Order: SVU returns to the tube in the fall, but what is totally true is we won’t be seeing Christopher Meloni anymore: the actor has left the show, after refusing a reportedly generous offer to stay put, and will not be joining Mariska Hargitay on its 13th season.

Both actors had been in will-they-won’t-they talks with NBC about coming back for a while. Hargitay, who recently adopted a baby and was eyeing to scale back, signed a new deal to return earlier this month.

Talk about DUN Dun – one of TV’s most enduring pairings has been torn asunder.

But, since we live in a fast-paced world, may I suggest a couple of names as replacements?

The comedy pilot that Adrian Pasdar was working on for the new season, that was passed over, right? Hello!

And how about Mark Lutz? He’s beefy and easy on the eyes, much like Meloni, and he has a young-Meloni-esque quality to him....

I’m just sayin’.

Photo: AccessHollywood.com.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Stylist

Lenny Kravitz is headed to the Capitol.

The Hunger Games’ Capitol, that is.

The musician/sometimes-actor is set to play Katniss Everdeen’s (Jennifer Lawrence) Capitol-appointed stylist, Cinna, a.k.a. the kind-hearted artist who dreams up Suzanne Collins’s heroine’s Girl on Fire dress.

Production on the first installment of Gary Ross’ sure-to-hit trilogy is currently underway in North Carolina for a release next March.

Photo: SoulBounce.com.
With a Little Help from...the Muppets?

There once was a boy...who loved a girl. He loved her so much, but, one day, he kinda forgot about their anniversary. And then she walked out on him.

They made a movie about this boy and this girl, and come Thanksgiving you will get to see it and Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy & Co. reunite the once-happy couple so they can get their happily ever after.

Ah, if only all stories went that way, huh.

Thats the plot for the Muppets movie that Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) has dreamed up, though, and it looks adorable, and colorful, and completely must-y. Plus, it features Amy Adams, and it looks like she’ll be singing, so I’m so there.

Photo: TheMuppetMindset.blogspot.com.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Palme for Tree

The 64th Cannes Film Festival came to a close yesterday with Terrence Malick’s Brad Pitt-starring saga The Tree of Life walking away the winner of the coveted Palme d’Or.

The jury, led by Robert De Niro, chose Melancholia’s Kirsten Dunst as best actress. The best actor prize went to French star Jean Dujardin (The Artist).

Click here for a complete Cannes-prize wrap-up.

Photo: EW.com.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Body Hugger

As expected, David Beckham is doing it: The footballer is getting into the undies business.

Becks will launch a men’s bodywear line and a new men’s fragrance (called Homme by David Beckham) later this year.

From the looks of his artwork, it’s gon’ be all kinds of sexiness.

Photo: WWD.com.
Revving It

So they are prepping a TV version of Jason Statham’s Transporter franchise, and the powers that be have cast Chris Vance (Prison Break) as their lead.

And I likey.

Yep, the yummy-looking Brit will be playing professional transporter Frank Martin on the show that Luc Besson, who co-wrote all three movies, is executive producing.

Cinemax – yeah, you read that right plans to air the show’s first season, which will shoot this summer in Canada and Europe (and which Vance promises will be “high octane”) next year.

Photo: SodaHead.com.