Harvey Weinstein Wants to Recut The King's Speech, and 5 Other Stories You'll Be Talking About Today

Also in this humpday edition of The Broadsheet: Ryan Murphy has some choice words for Kings of Leon... J. Edgar finds its icy blonde... a new Oscar nominee is also a new father... and more ahead.

· Now that The King's Speech has 12 Oscar nominations, Harvey Weinstein has an idea about how to make the film more profitable. Namely: Editing the curse words out to get rid of that pesky R-rating! "The British numbers are huge because the rating lets families see the movie together," said Weinstein, referring to the fact that The King's Speech has a 12-and-over rating across the pond. "Tom [Hooper] and I are trying to find a unique way to do this that keeps his vision of the movie." Riiiiight. For the record, The King's Speech has already grossed $57 million at the box office, and will expand -- recut or not -- to 3,000 theaters on Valentine's Day weekend. And so it goes. [LAT/Company Town]

· Remember when Kings of Leon denied Glee use of their hit single "Use Somebody"? Ryan Murphy sure does! "F*** you, Kings of Leon," he told THR. "They're self-centered assholes, and they missed the big picture. They missed that a 7-year-old kid can see someone close to their age singing a Kings of Leon song, which will maybe make them want to join a glee club or pick up a musical instrument. It's like, OK, hate on arts education. You can make fun of Glee all you want, but at its heart, what we really do is turn kids on to music." And sell merchandise. Ahem. For their part, Kings of Leon was stunned by Murphy's affront. "This whole Glee thing is a shock to us. It's gotten out of hand," said lead singer Caleb Followill. "At the time of the request, we hadn't even seen the show. It came at the end of that record cycle, and we were over promoting ["Use Somebody"]. This was never meant as a slap in the face to Glee or to music education or to fans of the show. We're not sure where the anger is coming from." [THR]

· Naomi Watts has joined Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer and Ed Westwick in Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar. Watts will play J. Edgar Hoover's loyal secretary, a role which was originally eyed for Charlize Theron. [Deadline]

· Tuesday was a great day for Javier Bardem. Not only did he grab a surprise Best Actor nomination for Biutiful, he also became a new father; wife Penelope Cruz gave birth to a baby boy in Beverly Hills. Congrats! [Huffington Post]

· Because you can't go five minutes without more James Franco news, there's this: Franco says he's going to direct his adaptation of Willam Faulkner's As I Lay Dying this summer. [MTV]

· That unnecessary David E. Kelley reboot of Wonder Woman that NBC picked up? McG might direct its pilot. [TVLine]



Comments

  • The Cantankerist says:

    How brattish are the Glee folk getting now? Hey, guys, here's a great way to have all the leeway with songs you can imagine: WRITE 'EM YOURSELF. Pretending that Glee's appropriation of modern hits is not at the very least a two-way street is wildly deluded to begin with; thinking that all bands should be ecstatic that their own tune might be transformed into a lump of saccharine Autotune is even more space-cadet, and wh? calling them assholes? oh, there's a self-centred problem here all right, and it ain't Kings Of Leon.
    Arts education? GLEE? Glee may well turn twice as many potential music fans AWAY from music as it draws in. Music is a whole lot more than addiction to the next sugar hit.

  • zooeyglass1999 says:

    The more Ryan Murphy opens his mouth the more I just wish he would go away. I am sorry but despite all his and the other producer's claims, Glee is not about art education. If it is, I am at a loss how the Britney/Santana lesbian scene teaches 7 year olds about music or how the kids using Coach Beist as a c@!k block makes anyone want to join a glee club or pick up a musical instrument. Glee is all about the $$$ hence why they tend to use popular artists more often than now as well as sell $200 replica jackets.

  • Martini Shark says:

    Don't Stop /
    Beleagurin'