President Obama Never Promised Hollywood 'Easy,' and 6 Other Stories You'll Be Talking About Today

Happy Tuesday! Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: Jessica Chastain takes up with Tom Cruise... Kevin Costner walks out on Quentin Tarantino... A guide to sabotaging your own film, featuring Red State... and more.

· President Obama whirled through Hollywood on Monday night like the fundraising dervish he his, hosting two events and raking in an estimated $2 million for his 2012 reelection campaign. The night's attendees included Jack Black, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Judd Apatow, Eva Longoria, Jamie Foxx, and a boldfaced cast of others who heard the president declaim, "I know over the last two and a half years sometimes you've gotten tired, gotten discouraged. It's gotten tough. ... Here's the thing, I never promised you easy." Nice. Go ahead, Mr. President, try that line in Flint, Mich. [THR]

· Jessica Chastain is reportedly set to join Tom Cruise in the last-man-on-Earth-except-for-his-love-interest-apparently sci-fi project formerly known as Horizons and/or Oblivion. Joseph Kosinski (Tron Legacy) will direct. [THR]

· Thanks to scheduling conflicts with Man of Steel and the miniseries The Hatfields and McCoys, Kevin Costner is out as the sadistic slave trainer in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. Alternatives? OK, besides Mel Gibson. [Deadline]

· Writer/director Jeff Nichols and his muse Michael Shannon -- who've collaborated so powerfully in their previous pairings Shotgun Stories and Take Shelter -- will reteam a third time for Mud, the coming-of-age story that has also added Sam Shepard and Sarah Paulson. Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon's commitments to the project, which began shooting Monday, were previously announced. [Press release]

· I'm getting to this a little late, and after talking with one of the film's distribution consultants last week, I'm not sure that I totally agree with it's central premise that Kevin Smith's Red State is anything resembling a market failure. But here's a fundamental point worth considering: "It is easily his finest film to date, but most moviegoers will remain completely unaware of it, because Smith has undercut its success at every turn with his own hubris, greed, or ignorance. Or, perhaps, all three." [Flavorwire via Andrew Sullivan]

· "Today I stopped tax dollars from being wasted on programs that don't work & that subsidize projects like Jersey Shore." New Jersey governor Chris Christie sure showed them! [Twitter via Atlantic Wire]

· The forthcoming iPhone 5 reportedly has a feature called Assistant that will revolutionize voice-control, from setting calendar dates to buying movies tickets to pouring your coffee. OK, not so much with the coffee, though it sounds like that's on the way, too. [Twitter via Atlantic Wire]