Hollywood's Human Rights Problem(s), and 5 Other Stories You'll Be Talking About Today

Happy Monday! Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: Arnold Schwarzenegger sets another action comeback... James Franco gets kinky with James Dean... Doris Day draws love from the critics... Michael Shannon teases a bit of General Zod... and more.

· Virtually every Hollywood controversy blows over in time, but Hilary Swank likely added some life to her Chechen despot birthday debacle over the weekend when she fired her manager and came thisclose to axing three of her agency squad at CAA. The moves follow Swank's paid appearance at the 35th birthday party of Ramzan Kadyrov, whose reputation for torture and other human-rights abuses in Chechnya prompted an apology from Swank and the donation of her fee to charity. I mean, fine, but now who will she blame for New Year's Eve? [The Independent]

· Not to be outdone, Relativity Media is in hot water with human-rights watchdogs for filming parts of its Hangover-esque buddy comedy 21 & Over in the Chinese province of Shangdong, where blind dissident Chen Guangcheng remains under house arrest and subject to regular harassment from state authorities. Relativity dismissed the concerns in a statement, affirming its commitment to the coexistence of human-rights advocacy and foreign moolah: "As a company, we believe deeply that expanding trade and business ties with our counterparts in China and elsewhere can result in positive outcomes." Of course. [Deadline]

· Arnold Schwarzenegger's comeback will reportedly include Black Sands, which will feature the ex-California governor as "a loner who wages war against a ruthless weapons manufacturer and his private army in the Southwest." [Deadline]

· From the same classy joint that brought you James Franco's ass-y magazine cover, how about a glimpse into the actor-filmmaker's raunchy Rebel Without a Cause-inspired art project? "Having sex with dolls with plastic dicks is fucking great [...] because you get to examine that act without the onus of people just looking at it and saying, 'That's pornography.' You can actually think about it for a second and ask yourself what is happening there when you're doing that for real.'" Don't look at me; I was gonna ask you. [THR]

· Congrats to Doris Day on her forthcoming career achievement honor from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, news of which included the shocking snippet that Day hasn't made a movie since 1968. Common knowledge? Sure, but still: How is that possible? [LAT]

· Finally, Michael Shannon offers the critical distinction you were looking for between his Boardwalk Empire character and his Man of Steel villain: "General Zod is, I think, a bit stronger than Van Alden. General Zod would not go to the speakeasy and have a shot. General Zod will stop at nothing to get the job done. General Zod doesn't have a supervisor." Now you know. [EW]

· What's shakin' in North Korea? Oh, not much, just an official government exile of workers based in Libya, lest they come back and spread a single word of revolutionary promise or potential. Utterly, utterly fascinating stuff. [The Telegraph]