Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are experts at the art of the publicity stunt. In the past year alone, the pair has finagled more tabloid covers than any of their Hills co-stars, quit I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here twice and survived a 24-hour plastic surgery decathlon that transformed Montag into an almost-unrecognizable tabloid star. So when Montag announced last week that she was dumping her manager husband in lieu of psychic Aiden Chase, Movieline, like the rest of the Hills-watching nation, was suspicious.
Movieline tracked down Montag's new manager, Aiden Chase, a third-generation intuitive based in Beverly Hills, who explained his relationship with Montag, revealed which dead celebrities are rooting for the reality star and addressed the rumor that Spencer was banned from The Hills.
more »
The comedy City Island was one of the most refreshing success stories to come out of last year's Tribeca Film Festival, and Andy Garcia was one of the most refreshing success stories to come out of City Island. The 53-year-old actor delivers a revelatory performance as Vincent Rizzo, a corrections officer (and privately aspiring actor) who takes an interest in a soon-to-be-discharged prison inmate (Steven Strait) he'll eventually set up at his house on the titular island just off the Bronx. Trouble arises as his high-strung wife (Julianna Margulies), college-age daughter (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) and smart-ass son (Ezra Miller) suspect something is up between the two -- even as they scramble to hide secrets and desires of their own. Writer-director Raymond De Felitta steers the ensuing meltdown from farce to drama to dark comedy and back again, with Garcia's conscience navigating closely alongside.
As even the actor alluded to Movieline earlier this week, it might seems odd City Island (which opens Friday) works at all. And that was just the start of our own winding chat from City Island to The Godfather to his upcoming directing effort with Anthony Hopkins, Hemingway and Fuentes.
more »
We are gathered here today to remember the first vanquished contestant in American Idol's Top 12. Veils down! Mascara running! Kara DioGuardi weeping into Simon Cowell's chest before motorboating it! The voting public picked the wrong chirper, but contracts state that Randy Jackson must shoot somebody in the throat, and America voted for the following (wrong) victim. Spoiler ahead!
more »
While you were face down in a puddle of green beer last night, the late-night hosts donned their best St. Patty's gear and celebrated the holiday in their own special ways. Jimmy Fallon sang an Irish folk song in a funny green hat, Jay Leno hit the streets for a St. Patrick's Day-themed edition of Jaywalking, Comedy Central honored the greenest drug of all and David Letterman -- well -- he was still trying to figure out "that Twitter machine." Click through for the holiday-themed segments, ranked from worst (Blimey!) to best.
more »
· Conan O'Brien has been so busy planning his 30-city Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour and a possible documentary that he and Fox, the network long considered to be his next home, have not spoken in two weeks. Sources close to Fox say that the network is still optimistic about the prospect of working with Coco, but would have to clear the show with all of Fox's station and slash the show's production costs. While the network continues to figure out if a late-night program could be profitable, Conan is said to be considering five or six other offers for a daily television show. [THR]
Howard Gordon plans for life after 24, a Nickelodeon star earns a seven-figure deal, and more TV Bites after the jump.
more »
· You can't really blame Columbia for wanting to go back to the blog-based biopic realm that so successfully spawned Julie & Julia, so get ready for The Pioneer Woman. Reese Witherspoon is at the top of the list to star as a city girl whose road-trip detour to Oklahoma wound up getting her involved with a cowboy and starting over in the country. There's even an ancillary cookbook. Derivative? Of course! But that probably only means you should be surprised it didn't happen sooner. [Deadline]
Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher set up a romantic comedy of their own, The Smurfs get another human counterpart, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
more »
Lost cast members recently filmed some sort of dada art installation where they all say, "Mmmm, cake." I feel frazzled. No, frosted. [Jezebel]
more »
The NBC reality competition The Apprentice will return in its original, un-celebrified form this fall, but with a twist: The 14 job-seeking contestants will all have been "hit hard by the economic downturn." Said Trump in a statement: "I'm proud to be putting people back to work, and to positively changing the psychology of America." This means we'll bear witness to a more sensitive Donald Trump, a mensch who will wait until after the press conference to remark that you're a fat loser. [EW]
Times are tough for a lot of American families out there, which is why NBC probably adapted Parenthood, the '89 Ron Howard film about worst-case childrearing experiences (for middle-class, white, suburban families) into a primetime series. Like Modern Family, NBC's Tuesday night drama deals with three generations of a sprawling clan. Only instead of jokes about adoption and homosexuals, Parenthood tackles more hard-hitting issues like that bag of weed you found hidden in your backyard that you know must belong to one of your brooding teens. Beginning with last night's episode, "The Deep End of the Pool," Movieline will provide a weekly forum to discuss the Bravermans' edgiest predicaments.
more »
Steven Spielberg may never get around to making that Abraham Lincoln biopic, but now he's touting another presidential assassination script. The mega-director is on board to produce Noah Oppenheim's script Jackie, which examines the days following the assassination of John F. Kennedy from Jackie Kennedy's perspective. The LAT theorizes that the project may end up at HBO, where Jeanne Tripplehorn (who perfectly played an older Jackie in last year's Grey Gardens) is no doubt looking into age-defying camera lenses. [LAT]
Armond White thinks the world is out to get him. That maybe the only thing we agree about. Whether it is or isn't is another matter entirely, but the paranoia was never more crystalline or direct than he made it in his review of Greenberg. It's incredible, must-read stuff, however predictable after the recent semi-scandal encircling White and director Noah Baumbach; you'll remember a screening ban and White's subsequent defense, followed by the torpedo shot his way by a fellow New York critic who wouldn't let the NY Press writer get away without a fight. And so begins the latest chapter in Retroactive AbortionGate, which Movieline has helpfully parsed with a few annotations and first impressions.
more »
Pictured on the left, we have the confirmed official cover art for the Avatar home video, available 4/22/10. Next to it is a considerably less official version, currently available on Tijuana kiosk shelves. As you can see, the Mexican street version of the Sam Warthington [sic] blockbuster has several appealing bonus features not available on Fox's release, including versions in both "español y English," plus a live commentary track by the guy who recorded it with a handheld video camera in a crowded theater, where you'll glean fascinating insights like, "the reason is so blurry is you need the especial glasses," and "Michelle Rodriguez is still hot, even if she only likes the chicas."
There must be a pact between Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker that as long as she's pulling in the big bucks making films like Did You Hear About The Morgans? and Sex and the City 2, he's allowed to make small films that are meant to pull at the heartstrings and teach life lessons. Wonderful World is the smallest of small films -- so small, in fact, that it only made $8,600 during its brief stint in theaters in January (not much, but enough to buy Sarah Jessica a couple pair of Louboutins).
more »
Though we don't tend to pry too much into actors' personal lives at Movieline, we couldn't help but notice a striking trend in the wake of Kate Winslet's divorce from Sam Mendes and the recent infidelity rumors that have rocked Sandra Bullock's marriage to Jesse James. Namely, why have so many Best Actress winners from the last decade seen their relationships implode shortly after?
more »
Graduates of Bravo's reality competitions have ventured to other networks in the past -- with mixed results. Project Runway's Santino Rice took a panelist gig on Logo's exceptional RuPaul's Drag Race while Jay McCarroll jogged laps alongside Bobby Brown on VH1's Celebrity Fit Club. The newest addition to that list is somehow the most questionable: Marcel Vigneron, the cocky Top Chef runner-up with the Ludwig von Koopa hair and firebreathing capacity, will front a new Syfy series devoted to... well, something related to sci-fi, right? Not quite.
more »
