Another week down at Movieline, where we welcomed an old friend, got to know a few new ones (maybe too well), and said farewell to a legend. Plenty of other notable events occurred as well; reminisce with us after the jump, and have a great weekend!
· Michael Jackson fans around the world said one last, expensive goodbye to the King of Pop. Among them: some ghoulish, ticket-clutching clowns, Craigslist, Darryl Phinnessee, and Keyboard Cat.
· In the staring contest that was the holiday-weekend box office, Ice Age 3 blinked first. Not satisfied with that victory alone, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen took home an even bigger prize days later. Don't get too comfortable up there, Dark Knight.
· Mark Lisanti signed on as Movieline's new Editor at Large, promptly commencing work with an inside look at Michael Bay's latest tantrum* and an exclusive glimpse at the pitch meeting that spawned View-Master: The Movie.
· Brothers, Coco Before Chanel and the red-band Jennifer's Body trailer all faced our Two-Minute Verdict.
· Speaking of Jennifer's Body, the film's make-up crew paid a visit to the 99-Cent Store.
· The lovely Rose Byrne and Humpday fellas Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard dropped by for a chat. (And then there was Duplass's Ben Stiller-tweaking encore.)
· For the record: No, Emma Watson does not actually date her stalker.
· Sony enlisted Aaron Sorkin to rewrite its stalled Moneyball project. Not to be outdone, we enlisted Greg Marcks for our One-Page Screenplay, Suicidal at McD's.
· So Humpday is pretty good! Too bad it's skipping L.A. for now.
· We met the new contestants from the upcoming season of Project Runway, whatever that is.
· T.J. Hooker and Macgruber were announced as projects in the Hollywood development pipeline. A shaken Gwyneth Paltrow required a cleanse.
*: Tantrum simulated on closed course. Do not attempt.