The first official weekend of summer is upon us, and there is no better way to spend it than sitting in front of your A/C revisiting Movieline's Week in Review. And if you don't have A/C, well, hey: Just put your face up to the screen and feel the cool emanating from this week's best movie & TV coverage. And stand by as the uber-chill Dixon Gaines returns to rock you this weekend as well. Catch you Monday!
Finally, a "Commenters of the Week" prize that satisfies the needs of How I Met Your Mother haters and Up in the Air fans: Our five winning commenters will get to write off or just fire bored thespian Jason Segel and free him from his multicamera manacles. You can do it in person or using Movieline's efficient fire-by-Skype technology. And you are allowed to embrace your best Ryan Bingham impersonation and employ the aid of a bemused monotone. See, this is about your artistic freedom as much as it's about Jason's. So, who wins the prize?
The IM comes in from a few friends, and it's virtually the same in every case: "Woody Allen picked six favorites from his own list of films, and have you SEEN the choices?" I hadn't yet, but at the same time, my Google Reader had filled up with aggrieved headlines about it, and to take it from the reception, he chose unwisely! So I look at the six he picked, and guys? They're not that bad.
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It's taken 6 months and a 30-city comedy tour, but Andy Richter is finally over his Tonight Show heartbreak. "It's like a bad breakup," Richter told Variety. "Once you get over it, you don't want to dwell." It also helps that the comedian -- who says he never would have abandoned Conan O'Brien after such an "unnatural ending," unlike Max Weinberg -- has a more cooperative network behind him. "[TBS] has been nothing but supportive. We can do whatever we want and be ourselves." [Variety]
Kevin Smith attended the premiere of Eclipse last night with his daughter, dressed like he usually is, but even more so. While we're not style critics here at Movieline, and we just shrugged at Smith's shirt (which was potentially stolen from a college freshman who is so psyched that he can now wear clothes with cuss words on them), we feel it is necessary to address the jorts, once and for all.
· Who are these people? I don't even recognize them!
· Congratulations to Sofia Coppola and Thomas Mars, who've just welcomed a new baby daughter named Cosima into the world.
· Sam Raimi may not be as confirmed to direct The Great and Powerful Oz as we'd thought.
· Uh-oh: Mel Gibson's former songbird Oksana Grigorieva says the actor was abusive with her.
· What kind of roles does Janeane Garofalo get offered now? "Like, 'police officer who may be gay,'" she tells the AV Club. "District attorney is a big one."
It looks like the MGM and Warner Bros. strategy of contacting tonally inappropriate directors to helm The Hobbit franchise had paid off better than any strategy associated with MGM in the last year. According to Movieline sister site Deadline, Peter Jackson is fully immersed in negotiations that would place him behind the camera for the two Hobbit films. Feign your total surprise... now.
Hoo boy. If you couldn't smell Grown Ups oozing down the summer-movie pipe months ago, there's definitely no escaping it now. At least that's the general consensus today among critics, whose reactions vary from visceral hate to a kind of psychic daze you might see among victims of severe head trauma and/or Sex and the City 2. Let's see what there is to see!
Miley Cyrus may have been one of the first stars to famously delete her Twitter -- as she told Movieline, "It's dangerous, it's not fun, [and] it wastes your life" -- but who knew that her habits could dampen other people's online oversharing? According to her director pal Adam Shankman, he and Cyrus are responsible for a new no-tweeting stipulation that Disney has started to write into its cast and crew contracts. #howdidthishappen?
Law & Order: Los Angeles might be a reunion of your favorite '90s hunks: According to Deadline, NBC has approached Skeet Ulrich, Dean Cain, and James Van Der Beek to star, as well as Dylan Walsh, Michael Ealy, and Michael Rapaport. This is all fine, but Movieline's argument for the detective team of Master P and Danica McKellar is fail-safe. It's too right! You need a Lil Romeo cameo more than you need Dawson's newest battle with angst. [Deadline]
Was Lake Bell a big enough celebrity to shoot a "name cameo" (read: opening scene cannon fodder) in Scream 4? No matter: the How to Make It in America actress has been forced to drop out. "Sucks: Scheduling conflicts with my current gig means I cant do #Scream4!" she tweeted last night. "(Hey horror bloggers, I know who the killer is...)" Amanda Bynes, call your agent -- it's comeback time! [Coming Soon]
· Channing Tatum and Ridley Scott are attached to seemingly every other project in Hollywood, so it's not quite surprising that their paths should cross on Ion. The sci-fi script about a man who travels between planets and dimensions in search of his reincarnated lover has settled at Fox, where Tatum is booked to star and Scott will co-produce. Meanwhile, the studio that brought you Avatar has also optioned Ray Bradbury's classic The Martian Chronicles, which was somehow on the market. Had I known I probably would have bid on that sucker myself. [THR, LAT]
Another gangster gets his big-screen close-up, the Weinsteins hock 200 films, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
Welcome back to Movieline Attractions, your regular guide to everything new, noteworthy, and faintly smelling of 1998 at the movies. This week, the world watches as Cameron Diaz helps Tom Cruise test his staying power, Adam Sandler and friends get juvenile, and an endlessly intriguing documentary pick up the slack at the art house.
· Jane Lynch withdrawal can be a very serious thing, but the new short film Pretty Parts (premiering at LA's Outfest next month) is here to help. The Glee star is part of a celebrity voice cast that includes Natasha Lyonne and Tom Lenk in this slasher movie spoof that replaces the usual cast of nubile teenagers with some very askew-looking plush toys. The trailer is after the jump, but beware: a lot of bloody stuffing is spilled.
TLC is spinning off its reality hit Cake Boss with a competition series pitting 10 cakemakers against one another. The untitled effort will find a successor for original Cake Boss Bobby Valestro and fill whatever niche that Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes, Last Cake Standing, Cupcake Wars, Amazing Wedding Cakes, and Ultimate Cake Off haven't covered. All we need now is a series about cakes that make the mistake of falling in love at the Jersey shore. [TV Guide]
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