No End and No Beginning

Word on M Street is Madonna’s longtime publicist, Liz Rosenberg (who also has repped Cher and Stevie Nicks), will soon leave Warner Bros. Records, after 38 years, because the company can no longer...afford her.

I love it!

Rosenberg is said to be keen on becoming a free agent, and would remain tied to Warner Bros. as a consultant, which would come in handy for when she has to act as a liaison between them and M’s new home, Live Nation.

Said the kooky gal of all the buzz, “I don’t make comments about myself, and I can’t imagine where you heard that. I know that there are also rumors that I’ve been sleeping with George Clooney, but I’m not commenting on that, either.”

I love Liz (pictured at right with the Queen of Pop and her manager, Guy Oseary). She tells it like no one else.

Photo: CelebrityWonder.com.

A Princely Portrait

Prince William and Prince Harry have struck a pose.

The British royals’ first official double portrait was unveiled this week in London, showing them in all dashing and whatnot in their army uniforms from when they were fellow officers in the Household Cavalry.

“[This is] a behind-the-scenes glance at the human element of royal responsibility and to emphasize their brotherly relationship,” said artist Nicky Philipps.

Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, which commissioned the piece, added that the portrait captured the two princes “formally dressed, but informally posed.”

It’s funny, I know, but having grown up with these two, reading about them in my mom’s magazines, I find them compelling. They’re like these two constants, so it excites me to see where they are in their lives in a most genuine way.

Having said that…I want a portrait, too!

Photo: People.com.

Do It, Ewan!

Moulin Rouge!'s Ewan McGregor is in talks to join Steven Soderbergh’s Knockout.

Do it, Ewan, do it!

Also negotiating to come on board are Michael Douglas, Dennis Quaid, and one of my favorite guys to spot in movies (because he’s so gosh darn handsome), Inglourious Basterds’ Michael Fassbender (get on the Google!).

The film, scheduled to start shooting in Feburary, will mark the feature debut of mixed martial arts star Gina Carano.

But back to McGregor, who will be seen this spring in I Love You Phillip Morris with Jim Carrey: Do it, Ewan, do it! Life is better when you’re on screen.

Photo: 1416AndCounting.files.wordpress.com.

Update: Channing Tatum is negotiating to join Knockout, which will see Carano play a spy who is betrayed by one of her teammates.

Tatum would step into the role of an agent in her spy cell, which means boyfriend – who just made news by recalling a painful accident that caused severe burns to his penis (insert your kiss-and-make-it better observation here) – will train with a Mossad agent for research.

Scarlett and Liev, Sitting on a Stage

As fans of both Broadway and hot girls probably know, Scarlett Johansson is adding her name to the list of A-Listers who are turning and have turned to the Great White Way in the past decade or so.

The actress is making her debut later this month, alongside Broadway vet – and super-sexy man – Liev Schreiber, in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge.

In the 1955 play, which focuses on a tightly knit Italian-American neighborhood in New York City, Tony winner Schreiber plays Eddie Carbone, a longshoreman from Red Hook, Brooklyn, obsessed with his niece, Catherine (Johansson).

“I’ve just been really impressed with her composure,” he said of her. “Broadway is a pressurized situation and we’ve had a really short rehearsal period. It’s really amazing watching her handle it so beautifully. I’m blown away by her.”

Here’s to audiences will be, too.

Photo: EW.com.

The Ones That They Want

The Directors Guild of America announced today its nominees for its DGA Award honoring the best director of 2009.

The five chosen ones are The Hurt Locker’s Kathryn Bigelow, Avatar’s James Cameron, Up in the Air’s Jason Reitman, Inglourious Basterds’ Quentin Tarantino, and, in a Golden Globe reversal, Precious’ Lee Daniels.

The DGA announcement follows that of the Producers Guild of America, which earlier this week recognized An Education, Avatar, District 9, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Invictus, Precious, Star Trek, Up, and
Up in the Air with nominations in its Best Picture race.

Mmm…the PGA list looks a lot like mine, which makes me smile.

Photo: Disney/Pixar.

The Pilot’s Back

Greg Grunberg, who co-stars on Heroes, f.k.a. one of TV’s most exciting shows, n.k.a. TV’s most tedious show – oh how far they’ve come…in the wrong way – is yapping all about…Lost.

The actor, a familiar face to fans of the J.J. Abrams oeuvre (Abrams is an executive producer on Lost, lest you forget), has confirmed that his ill-fated Oceanic pilot will play a role in the show’s Feb. 2 season premiere.

Huh? But he got his courtesy of the smoke monster in the show’s pilot!

“Well, with [Lost], they go back and forth in time, so you have no idea when and where the last season will take place,” Grunberg said. “I may get eaten all over again. It may be a flashback. It may be an alternate new reality where I am on the same flight but we don’t crash and I don’t get eaten. Maybe I’m a ghost. You never know.”

I guess we’ll have to watch, huh – that is if President Obama doesn’t throw a monkey wrench in our plans.

Oh, btw, in the same interview with EW.com’s Michael Ausiello, Grunberg says Heroes will see the light of a fifth season.

Fine, if you must.

Photo: DharmaSwanStation.wordpress.com.

What a Drag

Wilhelmina Slater meets her drag queen!

The Ugly Betty villainess’ upcoming plot line, in which she meets a drag queen who’s been shticking it all over town as the Mode editrix, sounded and now looks like it’s going to be a hoot and a half.

And who’s playing Vanessa Williams’ doppelgänger, Wilheldiva Hater?

That would be Chris Williams, the actress’ real-life brother, who said of the role, “I’m genetically programmed for [it]!”

According to Ugly Betty MVP, Michael Urie, “This side of bursting into flames, this show couldn’t get any gayer.”

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Photo: EW.com.

The Intricacies of Avatar Sex

Ever wondered how the Na’vi that inhabit Pandora in James Cameron’s blockbuster hit Avatar…do it?

Well, you’ll find out soon enough when the film comes out on DVD.

“That will be [an extra], if you want to see how,” Cameron said of a un-PG-13 sex scene between Neytiri, Zoë Saldana’s Na’vi princess, and Jake Sully’s (Sam Worthington) avatar.

Whatevs – can they also include the behind-the-scenes since, perhaps, there will be a shot or two or Worthington sans shirt?

Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Rock the Stage

American Idiot, the musical based on Green Day’s 2004 CD of the same name, is headed to Broadway.

The show will begin previews in March and will make its Great White Way debut in April, following a record-breaking run in California last fall.

American Idiot is under the direction of Michael Mayer, the Tony Award-winning director of Spring Awakening.

Photo: RollingStone.com.

Landing a Star

Up in the Air breakout Anna Kendrick will star in an untitled new comedy to be directed by Jonathan Levine (The Wackness) with Seth Rogen and Wanted’s James McAvoy.

McAvoy will play a twentysomething man who learns he has cancer, while Kendrick will take on the role of a psychologist who counsels him.

Production on the project, which Nicole Holofcener (Friends with Money) was set to helm until she and the studio could not agree on where to shoot it, is set to begin filming next month.

Photo: TwilightGroupie.com.

Update: Joseph Gordon-Levitt is replacing James McAvoy in the movie now that the latter has pulled out of the project “due to unrelated circumstances beyond his control.”

A Sticky Sitch for Spidey

Spider-Man 4 has been delayed.

Sony has decided to push back the start of production on Sam Raimi’s fourthquel starring Tobey Maguire, which was set to begin next month.

The studio doesn’t know when production will resume. This latest schedule snag follows a halt last month, decided upon to tweak the script.

It’s unclear whether Spidey’s latest adventure will meet its announced May 6, 2011, release date.

What is clear, though: How unhappy fans will be...and how oh-so-possible it is for someone at the top of this pile to feel his of her job threatened.

Photo: FreeWebs.com.

Update: Well, this didn’t take long.

Given the news of the shift, Paramount and Marvel have claimed Spidey’s old (?) opening date for their Thor, while Disney has grabbed Thor’s vacated May 20, 2011, slot for its Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Spider-Man 4 could still be ready in time for its announced May 6, 2011, release date, though.

When Sam Mendes Will Meet Bond

Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) is in talks to direct Daniel Craig & Co. in the 23rd chapter of the James Bond franchise.

The untitled project is currently being written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (Quantum of Solace, Casino Royale) in collaboration with Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon).

The movie is oh-so-tentatively slated for 2011. And opinions on this particular choice shall begin in 3...2...1....

Photo: WMagazine.com.

Update: The great debate has begun!

The Rocker M?

Madonna currently is – as usual – hard at work on a new album due out sometime later this year.

Reportedly, one of the confirmed people working on her still-unnamed album is Brendan O’Brien, a producer who has worked with Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, Rage Against the Machine, Stone Temple Pilots, AC/DC, and Aerosmith.

So the question is: Is the Queen of Pop going to dive deep into the rock world and make a guitar-based album?

She certainly has been honing her own skills, as anyone who went to one of her concerts this decade knows.

Also reported to be working with Madonna are A-Trak (a Kanye West collaborator) and David Guetta.

Of course, I can’t wait to learn more.

Photo: Variety.com.

Update: Contrary to rumor, A-Trak is not working with Madonna. Yet.

Sharon Stone Joins the Rotation

This spring, Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Sharon Stone is suiting up as a cop-turned-prosecutor for a four-episode arc on Law & Order: SVU.

La Stone, natch, is expected to go toe-to-toe with Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Stabler (Christopher Meloni), and the rest of the squad.

“It is obviously a thrill and a delight to have a star of [S2]’s wattage and importance joining SVU,” said show creator Dick Wolf.

Also coming on board, for one episode, is Mischa Barton, who will play a hooker in March.

No word on how much of a thrill that piece of casting is for Wolf, though.

Photo: TimesSquareGossip.com.

Update 1: Christopher Meloni’s old Oz co-star, Lee Tergesen, is also coming on board SVU, playing a deranged religious zealot suspected of murder.

Update 2: Debra Winger is also guest-starring on the show, later this month, as an inner-city school principal covering for some students accused of murder.

Simply Irresistible, Pt. 63

The couple that gets ripped together….

The abs-olutely ridikolously hot pair that is Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale were seen showing off their matching six packs as they took a stroll with their equally taut (ha!) 3-year-old son Kingston in St. Bart’s yesterday.

Urgh.

Photo: UsMagazine.com.

Sandy Hearts Betty

2009’s It Woman Sandra Bullock will do the honors and present her ever-It Proposal co-star Betty White with a SAG Life Achievement Award at the Jan. 23 Screen Actors Guild Awards.

The 16th annual awards show will include a tribute to the 87-year-old White’s long, celebrated career, which includes turns in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls.

Her next role will be in the Disney feature You Again with Kristen Bell.

Off screen, White is a passionate animal-rights activist, affiliated with groups such as Actors and Others for Animals and the Morris Animal Foundation.

It couldn’t happen to a better gal, I say.

Photo: SheKnows.com.

Look Who’s There

Gossip Girl recurring player, and Leighton Meester’s main man, Sebastian Stan is ready for his the big screen.

The actor has been cast to star opposite Ashley Greene (The Twilight Saga) in a supernatural horror movie called The Apparition.

Production on the flick, about a couple haunted by a supernatural presence unleashed as the result of a college experiment, is set to begin early next month.

Photo: GossipGirlInsider.com.

Can I See Some Headlines, Please?

In the spirit of gender and expectations equality, I should anticipate cover stories on all tabloids on how fat formerly chiseled 300 star Gerard Butler has gotten.

Butler let is all hang out while on vacation in Barbados last weekend, and yet, I haven’t seen or read a single item about how scandalous it is that he’s let himself chunk.

I’m just sayin’.

Photo: People.com.

Picking Up on His Career

Luke Wilson, whose brilliant Royal Tenenbaums and entertaining Family Stone played on cable over the holidays (a lot), is finally getting back to serious work.

And not a moment too soon, IMHO: Seeing him in those AT&T commercials, honest work and all, makes me tear up a little.

Wilso has joined Mike White’s new HBO comedy pilot Enlightened, which stars Laura Dern as a self-destructive woman who, following a meltdown, has a spiritual awakening and becomes determined to live an enlightened life, creating havoc at home and work.

Owen’s brother will play Levi, her unkempt ex-husband who has a drug problem.

Sounds kind interesting, no?

Photo: DayMix.com.

Lafayette’s Lovah

It’s a new year, so it’s time for a new piece of True Blood casting news.

Seriously, everyone and their maker is going to be on hit HBO show in the summer.

I mean, Joe Manganiello, Natasha Alam, Grant Bowler….

Now comes word that Kevin Alejandro (TNT’s Southland) has been cast as Lafayette’s (Nelsan Ellis) – Bon Temps’ resident gay – love interest in the upcoming third season.

Alejandro, who will recur, will play Jesus Velasquez, a good-natured Latino orderly caring for Lafayette’s mother (who will be played by Alfre Woodard).

Photo: CBS.com.