Was It the Hair That Did It?

Sorry, Katie Holmes, but your big return to TV is gonna have to wait.

A&E Television Networks has decided it will not air The Kennedys, after all.

The project is an eight-part miniseries starring Greg Kinnear as JFK and Holmes as Jackie O, with Barry Pepper as Bobby Kennedy and Tom Wilkinson as Joseph Kennedy.

“While the film is produced and acted with the highest quality,” the network said in a statement, “after viewing the final product in its totality, we have concluded this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History [Channel] brand.”

So it wasn’t Katie-as-Jackie’s hair then?

Showtime has the option of premiering The Kennedys later this year, just like it did The Reagans a few years ago.

Photo: TVLine.com.

Update: Uh, actually, Showtime is passing on the hot potato, too.

Catch a Falling Star

It’s a story as old as this business we call show: that of the great entertainer haunted by demons so strong he or she can’t help but fall down the rabbit hole and take us – ever their captive audience – down with them.

In Shana Feste’s tremendously anticipated (by me) Country Strong, that most captivating, intriguing, maddening creature we can’t help but love (and dislike a tad) is country superstar Kelly Canter. Kelly, known to all as the Grammy-winning Belle of Bristol, is best remembered as the sunniest, shiniest thing, but that was before she crashed and burned on stage during a big concert. Now, she’s dimming – a shadow of her former self struggling to cast herself in a light all her own – and as played by my girl Gwyneth Paltrow, she’s vulnerable, flawed, angel-voiced, “stronger than all of this,” yet so...not.

G.P., it must be said, has her job cut out for her, for Feste doesn’t make it easy for her or her cast mates (which include a never-more-actor-y Tim McGraw, Garrett Hedlund, and Leighton Meester) to inhabit a fully realized world.

Paltrow, though, rises to the challenge, and so do her supporting players, especially Hedlund, who is a complete revelation and the heart of Country Strong. His rootsy, hipster-y look and well-suited-for-the-genre vocals come together tremendously, and give his honky-tonk singer/rehab-facility orderly an air of authenticity that lends the movie a much-needed boost in key scenes.

Speaking of rehab, that is where Hedlund’s Beau Hutton meets Ms. Kelly Canter.

She’s there getting herself sorted out following that meltdown I alluded to earlier. It happened about a year ealier. Kelly was in Dallas performing...she was pregant, five months along, and also drunk. Some time during the show, she tripped and fell, losing the baby.

Her star was tarnished, perhaps forever and irreparably, but on the day we meet Kelly, her husband/manager James (McGraw) marches into her room at the recovery center, walking in on his wife and Beau (who’d been writing a song together, engaged in a flirtation) and announces she’s leaving rehab to embark on a three-date encore tour.

It’s her big comeback, y’ see, but is she ready?

Paltrow and Beau say no, but Kelly says OK, she’ll go along with it because she’s scared if she doesn’t she’ll lose no, not her career, but her husband.

Opening for her will be Chiles Stanton (Meester, channeling enough of her Blair Waldorf persona from TV’s Gossip Girl and mixing that bravado with enough up-and-comer insecurity to emerge on the winning side of an underwritten role). Chiles is a former beauty queen determined to make it big in Nashville. She’s got James on her side but not Beau, who dismisses her as easily as he pays her consequence), and, with her Eve Carrington-esque quality, she makes Kelly even more jittery than she already is, the poor thing.

The whole idea of this comeback that’s being mounted for Kelly is so misguided you’ll question real hard why James is pushing for it so.

In fact, you’ll wonder why Kelly’s so messed up (at her worst, she’s a drunken mess, dancing on dive-y bar tables and being all slutacious; at her best, she’s transcending a cynical photo op, making music on the spot for a Make-A-Wish kid), why Beau wants to protect her so much, and, more importantly, why if this is supposed to be a movie about this woman’s journey it is Hedlund who does most of the heavy lifting...and when, just when is Paltrow taking to the stage, already.

After all, that is what we want to see – the GOOPster singing her little heart out. Which she does beautifully, hanging on to her accomplished twang like a natural and oozing a stage presence that’s been talked about quite a bit this awards season.

My love of what this movie meant, for Paltrow and my undying fandom of her, has been well chronicled.

Alas, Country Strong ultimately disappoints in that it gives the Oscar winner much too little meat to bite into and chew (holy melodrama, she sure is asked to cry a lot) that by the time her big moment finally arrives – which she beyond-owns – you’ll be as emotionally drained as Kelly Canter. As Beau sings in the end, timing is everything, and this movie suffers from a lack of it and focus.

The performances elevate this one, as does the music (with which I’m obsessed), so keep that in mind when you go see this one, and you should give in to it and go see it, alright, so this weekend you better get, y’ read.

My Rating **1/2

Photo: Screen Gems.

Almost Naked

Well, now we know it takes two hands to cover Adam Levine’s bits.

The Maroon 5 dropped trou – well, he kinda dropped everything, actually – for a publicity shot meant to raise awareness for prostate and testicular cancer that’s appearing in the new Cosmo UK.

As for those hands, they belong to the singer’s gf, model Anne V.

Lucky bitch, right?

Photo: HuffingtonPost.com.

So Money

Once this whole Twilight Saga thing comes to an end, Robert Pattinson wants to stay relevant.

That’s probably why the guy has been branching out. He already starred in that exploitative dud Remember Me last year, and he’s got Water for Elephants to look forward to this spring.

Now comes word that teen idol has signed on to star in Cosmopolis for David Cronenberg, the adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel the director wrote for the screen.

Pattison will play a financial wunderkind who risks his entire fortune to bet against the yen on a tumultuous day, a gamble that puts him in the crosshairs for assassination.

Marion Cotillard and Paul Giamatti are in talks to join the cast.

Photo: RobsessedPattinson.com.

The New Gretel

The upcoming Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters has found its leads.

Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time) is set to join Jeremy Renner in a movie about the famous siblings to be set 15 years after the siblings killed the witch who kidnapped them and finds them working as witch-seeking bounty hunters.

Will Ferrell is co-producing the project along with Chris Henchy, Adam McKay, and Kevin J. Messick (with whom Ferrell worked on The Other Guys), and production is expected to begin in March in Berlin.

Photo: CoventryTelegraph.net.

The Queen D Is Here to Stay

Kathy Griffin may be putting the kibosh on her Emmy-winning Life on the D-List, but gf isn’t go anywhere far away from Bravo, her home for the last six season.

The cabler has announced that it has tapped the oh-so-funny Queen D to perform four new stand-up specials each quarter this year.

“I went to Bravo and told them I thought I was a little too nice in my [eight previous] stand-up specials,” she said. “They agreed…and gave me four more. Let the fur fly!”

Yes, let it.

Photo: JerryCurl.blogspot.com.

That Boy Is a Monster

George Clooney is making like Leonardo DiCaprio and attaching himself to a movie about a serial killer, too.

The Sexiest Man emeritus will star in the planned adaptation of The Monster of Florence, the story of a serial killer who terrorized the Italian city between 1968-1985.

Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Nathan Alexander (Valkyrie) are writing the script.

Photo: IWatchStuff.com.

More Theater for Julia

No...not Julia Roberts, but Julia Stiles.

The actress – last seen on the Great White Way in Oleanna – will be returning to the New York stage with the Broadway debut of Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig this spring.

Stiles joins Dane Cook and Josh Hamilton in play, as Jeannie, one of Hamilton’s former flames.

Fat Pig premiered Off Broadway in 2004.

Photo: listal.com.

All Eyes on That Time

How H-O-T do Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon look in this scene from their upcoming Water for Elephants?

Beyond, right?

The two co-star in the adaptation of Sara Gruen’s 1930s-set best-seller, Depression-era-set novel (due out on April 22), she as a horse trainer married to circus ringleader Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), he as a veterinary student.

Check out the trailer – Hal Holbrook plays an older Pattinson looking back on the most spectacular time of his life – and tell me you don’t want to see this one.

Photo: EW.com.

The Producers and the Writers Please Me

I gotta say I was quite chuffed when I saw that the nominees for best picture that the Producers Guild of America announced this morning matched seven for 10 with my Top 10 of 2010 list.

Among the PGA’s picks are 127 Hours, Black Swan, Inception, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right, The King’s Speech, The Social Network, The Town, Toy Story 3, and True Grit.

I actually went eight for 10 if you count my honorable mention of The Town, btw.

Click here for a full list of PGA nominations.

Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America also announced their nominees for the best of the year that way, and their picks included many a surprise, chief among them the inclusion of I Love You Phillip Morris in the Adapted Screenplay category and Nicole Holofcener’s Please Give in the Original race.

Click here for a full list of WGA nods.

Photo: Paramount Pictures (True Grit).

Update: The National Society of Film Critics have named The Social Network the top film of 2010 and saluted its director (David Fincher), leading actor (Jesse Eisenberg), and screenwriter (Aaron Sorkin).

I was so pleasantly surprised by their pick of Olivia Williams from The Ghost Writer as best supporting actress...because I picked her, too.

The Time Traveling Family

The Shannons are ready to become America’s first time-traveling family.

The clan – led by Jason O’Mara – is at the center of Terra Nova, Fox’s upcoming drama about folks from the year 2149, who sent back to prehistoric Earth as part of an experiment to save the human race.

Joining O’Mara on the Steven Spielberg-exec-produced show launching in May (but premiering in the fall) are Landon Liboiron, Naomi Scott, Alana Mansour, and Shelley Conn.

Photo: EW.com.

Saturday Night’s Alright for G.P.

It’s something I’ve wanted for a while now, and it’s happening on Jan. 15: Gwyneth Paltrow is hosting SNL for the first time since 2001.

Could I be more thrilled?

Cee Lo Green, whom the Country Strong star famously covered when she guested on TV’s Glee last November, will be the musical guest.

Will they do something together? I mean, the two have certainly been teasing a collaboration lately….

Photo: KVAL.com.

Update 1: It looks like my favorite girl may perform on SNL in a couple of weeks as well.

The actress and Green reportedly have recorded a new version of his summer hit “Fuck You.”

Update 2: Now click here if you want to listen to G.P. sing a couple of tracks from the Country Strong soundtrack, including the title track and “Coming Home.”

Tale As Old As Time...But Hotter

A modern-day take on Beauty and the Beast is coming, and the best part is it stars It Boy of 2011 Alex Pettyfer.

Just weeks after he breaks through in I Am Number Four next month, the up-and-coming Brit will co-star opposite Vanessa Hudgens in the released-at-last Beastly.

Pettyfer plays Kyle, a spoiled New York brat cursed with bad looks in order to appreciate true beauty by way of finding honest-to-the-goodness-within love.

Mary-Kate Olsen and Neil Patrick Harris co-star in the movie opening on March 18.

Photo: ChartMovieInfo.com.

M.P.!

This spring, HBO is treating to some Mildred Pierce.

The cabler has given the James M. Cain novel – the 1945 adaptation of which starred Joan Crawford – the miniseries treatment.

The five-hour not-TV-but-HBO event was directed by Todd Haynes and stars Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel Wood, and Melissa Leo.



Looks good, huh.

Sci to the Fi for Jodie

Neill Blomkamp is having no trouble rounding up a star-studded cast for his upcoming follow-up to District 9.

In addition to Sharlto Copley and Matt Damon, the director has managed to bring Jodie Foster on board Elysium, his socially conscious ensemble-cast political project.

Alas, details on the movie’s plot are still being kept under wraps.

Up next for Foster, though, is the debut of her Beaver in the spring.

Photo: BestNewHairstyle.blogspot.com.

Wilde for People

It Girl Olivia Wilde is joining forces with Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks.

The TRON: Legacy star has been cast as Pine’s character’s girlfriend in the family drama Welcome to People.

The movie follows the story of a businessman who returns home after his estranged father’s death and discovers that he has an alcoholic sister (Banks) with a 12-year-old son.

The project marks a bit of a reunion for Banks and Wilde. The two appeared in last fall’s The Next Three Days.

Photo: Trend-CelebrityNews.blogspot.com.

Puppet Therapy

The Beaver is finally coming out – on March 23 – so all of y’all Mel Gibson haters (and the lovers that are still out there) better get ready.

This is, of course, Jodie Foster’s latest directorial, a.k.a. the movie that has the misfortune of starring the socially embattled Gibson.

But, set aside all the drama off screen for a moment, The Beaver actually looks like it will be worth your while.

It’s a dark comedy in which the actor plays as a man who copes with a nervous breakdown by creating an alter ego in the form of a beaver puppet (Foster plays his long-suffering wife, while Anton Yelchin plays their son).

Will you give it a shot? Gibson looks to be at his best, at least on screen. He could have a comeback in his hands....

Photo: MovieCarpet.com.

Paused

The 24 movie is TBD.

20th Century Fox put the kibosh on the project – kinda – when it passed on a script by Billy Ray (State of Play) that would have continued the storyline of rogue CTU agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland).

“As far as I know, it is in suspended animation,” said Howard Gordon, the show’s longtime producer. “There is talk about re-approaching it. I understand (director/producer) Tony Scott is meeting with Kiefer to talk about ideas. People are still talking about it.”

Y’all better hurry and get it together soon. And I mean that as a fan.

Photo: USSPost.com.

Anticipating the Birth

Say what you want about Lady GaGa, but when girlfriend promises som’in’...she delivers.

Right before NYE, the pop star said she’d be tweeting a major announcement first thing in 2011, and she did.

“THE SONG 2 13 11,” she teased, “THE RECORD 5 23 11.”

And that’s how fans around the world learned of two important dates to keep in mind for Lady Gaga’s new album, Born This Way. And that she has a perky bum.

Photo: TwitPic.com.

Update: Evidently, Lady GaGa cannot wait and she’s dropping her new single two days early.

2010: The Year in Review

Cutting it close this year, aren’t I?

I usually earmark the last Friday of the year to share with y’all what it was that I liked, didn’t care for so much, and plain ol’ thought was kinda like, huh?

In 2010 I find myself in an interesting predicament. There are some movies I haven’t seen yet, so I can’t know whether I should include them in my traditional list, which starts out funny and irreverent and ends with my more serious top picks. So this year, I’m starting at the end, with my Top 10 films of the year only.

Stay tuned for the rest, my pretties.

10 Best Films of the Year (in alphabetical order):

127 Hours

Black Swan

Blue Valentine
The Ghost Writer
How to Train Your Dragon
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3

Honorable Mention (tie): The Other Guys and The Town

Best Animated Film: Toy Story 3

Best Directors: Darren Aronoksky (Black Swan), Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), David Fincher (The Social Network), Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right), Christopher Nolan (Inception)

Best Body: David Lyons (Eat Pray Love)

Should’ve Done Better: Jennifer Aniston

Should’ve Gotten Better: Julia Roberts (Eat Pray Love)

Best Comeback: Gwyneth Paltrow (for her expanded role in Iron Man 2 and her expertly executed media blitz on behalf of Country Strong)

Best Dress: Tina Fey’s multi-purpose blue dress in Date Night

Best Supporting Actors: Vincent Cassel (Black Swan), Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Jeremy Renner (The Town), Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right), Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech)

Best Use of Kim Cattrall: The Ghost Writer

Worst Use of Kim Cattrall (and Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon): Sex and the City 2

Can’t Wait to See More of – Female: Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, The Kids Are All Right)

Can’t Wait to See More of – Male: Garrett Hedlund (Country Strong)

Most Welcome to the A-List: Emma Stone

Most Underappreciated: Knight & Day

Most Oh, No They Did Moment: When they brought back Aidan for that in Sex and the City 2

Best Supporting Actresses: Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech), Marion Cotillard (Inception), Barbara Hershey (Black Swan), Mila Kunis (Black Swan), Olivia Williams (The Ghost Writer)

Breakthrough Performance – Female: Mila Kunis (Black Swan)

Breakthrough Performance – Male: Jaden Smith (The Karate Kid)

Best Hair: Reese Witherspoon in How Do You Know

Best Look: Chris Pine in Unstoppable

Best Prop: Cam Gigandet’s box of Famous Amos Cookies in Burlesque

Best Trailer: Inception

Sexiest Mofo: Jake Gyllenhaall (buff in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, sensitive in Love & Other Drugs)

Best Actors: Jim Carrey (I Love You Phillip Morris), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Colin Firth (The King’s Speech), James Franco (127 Hours), Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine)

Best Actresses: Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right), Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right), Natalie Portman (Black Swan), Gwyneth Paltrow (Country Strong), Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)

Photo: DreamWorks Animation (How to Train Your Dragon); SuperHeroFan.net (Eat Pray Love); Sony Pictures (Easy A); The Weinstein Company (The King’s Speech).

My Top Stories of the Year

Television and I, we’re BFF.

This season alone I’ve been watching an average of 25 hours a week of TV, which is kinda sick. Especially when you consider I TiVo some of it at home, FauxVo quite a bit of it at a BFF’s (my TiVo can’t handle all my needs), and I OnDemand and watch shows online, too.

It’s a full-time hobby, and so for the first time I want to recognize that which brings me so much please on such a consistent way.

So here’s to what I thought was the best of the tube in 2010

Community: The NBC Thursday night comedy may be ensemble piece, but everyone, from the group’s leader Joel McHale – and his guns – to MVPs like Alison Brie and Danny Pudi to the recurring players, has a chance to school other people in other so-called-funny shows. And how could it not after a season that went totally meta and delivered to insta-classic, clever, hilarious holiday treats (i.e., the Halloween ep, with its school of zombie, and the Christmas one, with its stop-motion brilliance). I hope these folks never graduate.

Friday Night Lights: Season 4 of this TV gem was more of the same. And by that I mean all kinds of amazing, with standout episodes like the one that should have scored Zach Gilford an Emmy nod and season-long arcs that built toward new beginnings for everyone in Dillon, Texas. Plus, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton continued delivering some of the best performances on TV, period, and making us wish we had people like them in our lives.

Fringe: The Fox sleeper dared to be even more, well...daring, and capable, and astute in the first half of its third season than most shows try to be in their entire run, or than anyone could hope for, and executed it all pretty much flawlessly. Anna Torv excelled at pulling double duty playing the role we’ve come to learn to love her in...and her (say, evil) alternate-universe counterpart, while Joshua Jackson continued showing enormous restraint, and John Noble reminded us, ep after ep, that he must get an Emmy nod this year, unless the Academy wants fans to cover its headquarters in amber.

The Good Wife: Because in its second season the Julianna Margulies vehicle demonstrated it is as layered as an onion. And because of Archie Panaji, whose investigator Kalinda, is one of the most intriguing characters I have ever seen on TV. And, most importantly, because it always leaves me wanting more.

Modern Family: The laughs and the quotables never stop when you’re in the company of these three families.

Nikita: It’s all about the Q Factor with this one, as in Maggie Q. The actress brings an unstoppable amount of sexy to the role of the assassin dead-set on revenge. The show may get shtick-y from time to time, but I’m too afraid of Q’s moves to say anything. Oh. Oops.

Parenthood: The Bravermans rock. End o’ story. Alright, it’s because as heightened as their love and support and care for one another is, it still rings real. Plus, Lauren Graham. Hello!

The Vampire Diaries: The guilty please may be on The CW, but it is by far one of the most satisfying, action- and drama- and dark-humor-packed hours of TV anywhere. Nina Dobrev blossomed this year and kicked butt and took numbers in her dual role as Elena and her deliciously bitching vamp-doppelgänger Katherine. And Ian Somerhalder got even more likeable as Damon, the bad vampire we’re meant to hate but can’t help but love.

The Walking Dead: Six episodes was enough for me to get hooked on zombies. And Andrew Lincoln. I would like next fall to get here, already, please.

10: This spot could have gone to a number of shows, like the still-has-it 30 Rock, or Cougar Town, or Damages. Don’t make me choose.

Photo: NBC.com (Parenthood).

The Arc(adia) Is Back

Billy Crudup is going back to familiar ground with familiar material.

The Tony winner is on board for the Broadway revival of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, which played on the Great White Way in 1995 and is returning in the spring.

The show, which had a sold-out run in London, features an ensemble cast that includes Margaret Colin (TV’s Gossip Girl), Raúl Esparza (Speed-the-Plow), and Crudup, who starred in the ’95 production as Septimus Hodge then (he will play Bernard Nightingale in 2011).

The plot of Arcadia crosscuts between a Derbyshire home in 1809 and a modern-day academic setting.

Previews will begin on Feb. 25 for a March 17 opening.

Photo: FilmSchoolRejects.com.

New Year, New Britney, Bitch

Britney Spears made her fans get there a little earlier today when she announced she’ll be dropping a new single, “Hold It Against Me,” next week.

The track was produced by Dr. Luke and Max Martin (who was responsible for several of the pop tart’s most iconic hits) and is said to have “this infectious bass beat beneath the song” and an “amazing” hook.

The single will debut on Jan. 7 in ancticipation of Spears’ seventh studio album, which is coming out in March.

Photo: LiveIndia.tv.

He Can Speak Clearly Now

Of course The King’s Speech is a frontrunner this awards season – the film has all the makings of a masterful piece of cinema.

The cast is led by Colin Firth (Oscar-nominated last year for his turn in A Single Man), who’s having one of those...longer moments, if you will, during which an actor is in the good graces of both the public and the critics

Firth plays England’s Prince Albert, the man who would become King George VI, albeit much to his royal chagrin.

Known as “Bertie” to those closest and dearest, which include his devoted wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter, stealing scenes as the woman who would become the beloved Queen Mother), the prince was a commanding presence, but also very much done in by a debilitating stammer.

He was thus quite happy to stay in the shadow of his father, George V (Michael Gambon), who, as it happens in this kind of story, was monarch first and father second.

The king did recognize his son Albert’s considerable strengths, chief among among them his better suitability to succeed, but that job was always to be his eldest’s, Edward VIII (Guy Pearce), a man more concerned with affairs of the heart than with matters of state.

Bertie, The King’s Speech suggests, always knew he would eventually would have to step and clean up any mess Edward made of the English mornarchy, and that is, perhaps, part of the reason for his speech impediment, which gave him great cause for concern...for pause.

But I’m getting ahead of myself and our story.

When we first meet Albert, he’s once again doing one of his least favorite things to do: delivering an address in public. He’s not having an easy go at it. As much as he wants to, he cannot deliver that which is expected of him, and Firth – with a quivering, yet firm upper lip that, by golly, says plenty even when he doesn’t – is rather heartbreaking as the extraordinary gentle man caught in one of the most ordinary of circumstances of all: the struggle to communicate.

Defeated (the guy has seen everyone he could have seen for his problem), Albert is resigned. He cannot try any more methods. This is who he is, and he’s both relieved by that and troubled. He mustn’t fear anything any longer (that he’ll be called to task), but he shan’t forget he might.

It is Elizabeth – ever warm, ever doting, ever confident in her husband Elizabeth – who seeks out someone else to help cure Albert. She finds that person in Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush, tremendous as ever), an Australian actor and speech therapist who is more (and less) than he seems, and the man who helps Bertie, in the most unexpected, unorthodox manner, overcome his stammer and, many years after they first met somewhat reluctant, deliver the faithful speech that lends the film part of its meaning (that would be George VI’s declaration of war on Germany).

The friendship that develops between Bertie and Logue is most extraordinary and, really, one of The King’s Speech’s most enjoyable parts of its oft-didactic, thoroughly enjoyable running time. Firth is extraordinary, and I gotta say I’ve hardly ever enjoyed Rush more, not to mention Bonham Carter, who simply should star in a young-Queen Mother biopic ASAP.

The film may be fairly standard (director Tom Hooper is a vet of TV miniseries – he most recently delivered HBO’s John Adams), but it is elevated by the three spectacular performances that are the thing awards buzz is made of, and deservedly so, no less.

My Rating ***

Photo: The Weinstein Company.

Reese’s Piece

Getting engaged is the new thing to do it seems.

A friend of mine got proposed to over the weekend – she accepted, natch! – and yesterday, Natalie Portman announced that she will be marrying her French beau Benjamin Millepied (and starting a family with the monsieur sometime next year).

And now today came the news that, after a few weeks of rumors, Reese Witherspoon will walk down the aisle again with Hollywood agent (and cutie patootie) Jim Toth, after all.

There must be something in the water. Something nice.

Photo: WhyFame.com.

Off the Market

The Hammer-wielder has gotten himself a ball and chain.

Chris Hemsworth, the hotstastic star of the upcoming Thor, and Elsa Pataky have gone and gotten hitched.

The couple was married over the holiday.

Photo: News.com.au.

A Tiny Dancer All Their Own

Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish have become parents.

The couple welcomed a son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, on Christmas in California. The baby arrived via surrogate.

“We are overwhelmed with happiness and joy at this very special moment,” they said. “Zachary is healthy and doing really well, and we are very proud and happy parents.”

Congratulations, you two!

Photo: UsMagazine.com.

A Beautiful Girl (or Boy) on the Way

Mazel Tov, Natalie Portman!

The actress’ camp confirmed today that the Black Swan star and her boyfriend, French ballet dancer Benjamin Millepied – whom she met on the set of the ballerina thriller – are engaged and expecting a baby.

Portman revealed after the news broke that she’s “indescribably happy and feel[s] very grateful to have this experience.”

Photo: Stylebrity.co.uk.

Update: On a note that is sorta related, Alanis Morrissette welcomed a son named Ever Imre on Christmas.

Just thought you oughta know....

Lies the Man Told

It’s a Christmas miracle: I Love You Phillip Morris is out in theaters at last.

The movie, a black comedy from the writers of Bad Santa, had been in release-date limbo for quite some time (more than a year, actually), and not necessarily because of its so-called controversially gay subject matter – Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor play lovers, and get pretty graphic with it – but because of funding troubles (the powers that be behind the project ran out of money for a proper stateside release but managed foreign showings).

In any case, the movie proves that it was well worth the wait and resisting the temptation to watch it in pieces online.

As a man whose identity...heck, whose life literally crashes into him, Carrey’s pretty spectacular and (his go-for-broke comic persona adeptly juxtaposed with dramatic layers), you’d think, worthy of some awards buzz. Alas, it seems the delay in getting I Love You Phillip Morris to screens did take a toll, and that would have to be its chances at any gold this season. Oh, well...he knows he did good, and now we all can, too.

Carrey plays this guy named Steven Russell. He’s a family man, an organ player at his church, and a freaking law enforcement officer who, after a car crash (coming home from a secret thrist with – gasp! – another man) becomes this liberated (wait until you hear his coming-out speech), high-living gay man and all-around white-collar scoundrel.

The real Russell, btw, is currently serving a somewhat-harsh-considering 144-year sentence in a maximum-security facility in Texas. That’s because not only did he run many a credit-card scam, he also, during one of his more ambitious schemes, became CFO for this big company, right, borrowing money from its accounts to invest it and pay himself big commissions. Not to mention, he had this too-unbelievable-to-be-true-but-nevertheless-true penchant for breaking out of prison, embarrassing officials along the way and more than once.

Anyway, as it plays in I Love You Phillip Morris, Steve isn’t a bad guy. He’s a cheat and a liar, and the title character (McGregor, never more mild or more charmingly vulnerable) will grow to wish he’d never laid eyes on him, but Steve truly believes everything he does he does for love.

Up until the moment he meets Phillip, Steve has been happy to discover himself. After leaving his God-worshipping wife Debbie (Leslie Mann, about whom I can never gush enough), he moves to South Beach, shacking up with a fetching Latin lover (Rodrigo Santoro), trying his hand at a respectable job but ultimately realizing that to live the gay lifestyle he has to result to frauds. Being gay, he says, ain’t cheap.

For his crimes he lands in prison, where he sees Phillip – who’s in the clink for a petty offense. He pursues him immediately...and, proving that old habits die hard, he feeds him a lie right away, too.

In any case, the attraction is a two-way street, and, after courting/writing to each other for a bit, Steve works his magic so they can cell together. It’s sweet. No, really, it is, and also funny (the movie is at its most outrageous during its first half, switching gears ever so slightly later on to show us the cost of Steve’s choices).

When one of his dirty tricks backfires and they are torn asunder, Steve promises to find a way to get back to Phillip, and he does. He springs himself from the big house, and he does the same for his lover. It’s come what may for this guy.

But – and there’s always a but with guys like Steve – he cannot keep away from trouble. He makes a nice life for himself and Phillip, but it’s one built on a throne of lies. Eventually, it all catches up to him, as it would, and he pays the ultimate prices by losing it all, including the love of his life.

Was it worth it? The answer, the movie tells us is really irrelevant. Steve is damaged goods, and no matter how much he tries, he’ll never be any more than he is. To know him is to love him. But that doesn’t mean neither Phillip nor us have to like him.

We can enjoy him and his story, though, which is more than likely what you’ll do. And that’s a good thing because this movie offers plenty of reasons to. More than anything, it depicts an honest love story between two men that is raw and honest and complicated just like it would be.

It’s a rare sight, but it’s a welcome one.

My Rating ***1/2

Photo: Roadside Attractions.

That Girl Is a Menace

Saoirse Ronan, the Oscar-nominated troublemaker from Atonement, is going all badass on us.

The young actress has reunited with director Joe Wright for Hanna, the pretty kick-butt story of a very special girl…who lived in the woods…where she was groomed by her father (Eric Bana) to kill a CIA agent played by Cate Blanchett.

Ooohh….



I cannot wait to find out just how lethal this little bird is…and what exactly Blanchett means when she says she turned out “better” than she’d hoped.

2011, can you get here already so we can be that much closer to Hanna?

Off to the East

Christian Bale is going on a little cinematic trip before The Dark Knight Rises.

The actor, who’s currently at the center of Best Supporting Actor Oscar chatter for his buzzed-about turn in The Fighter, is set to star in Zhang Yimou’s upcoming Nanjing Heroes.

Bale will play a sympathetic American priest during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, when invading Japanese troops slaughtered thousands of Chinese citizens.

The Chinese director is looking to start shooting next month. The project will be 40 percent English, and the rest in Mandarin.

Photo: GQ.com.

Sleeper?

Could Damian Lewis be plotting an attack on American television?

Well, the Brit is certainly planning...som’in’, or so Claire Danes will think now that he’s been cast as her male counterpart on Homeland, a Showtime pilot about a Marine sergeant under CIA investigation after spending eight years as a prisoner of war in Baghdad.

The drama, co-starring Mandy Patinkin, Laura Fraser, and David Harewood, is set to go into production next month.

Photo: Telegraph.co.uk.