· Celebrity Apprentice castoff Carol Leifer sat with Andy Cohen during a run-of-the-mill Watch What Happens episode and posed a question to Kelly Bensimon that we didn't think to ask during our interview: "Could you be a bigger pinhead?" [ONTD]
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The ABC crime caper Castle, which just enjoyed its largest ratings ever during its season-two finale, has been picked up for a third season. The second-season closer also gave ABC its highest scripted series ratings in that timeslot (Mondays, 10 PM) in 14 years, a feat occurred despite the 11% ratings lag of its lead-in, Dancing with the Stars. We can only imagine the amount of extra viewers Castle could've pulled in had Kate Gosselin's routine wooed us into submission instead of the kitchen. [THR]
Actually, that's bad news for all of us. Yes, despite the fact that you are shaking your head right now, 20th Century Fox is developing a movie based on the E*Trade baby ads. This news will still be true later today when it suddenly comes to you like something out of a nightmare, and you attempt to reassure yourself that it was just a dream. It wasn't. It lives!
Now, how can E*Trade foe Lindsay Lohan turn this around to her benefit?
Josh Radnor's well-received Sundance romcom happythankyoumoreplease was expected to be one of the festival's big sales, but it took a little while. Variety reports that the emerging Hannover House has bought the film for $1 million and set it for an August 27 release date. You may remember that Hannover also bought the atrocious Joel Schumacher drama Twelve at Sundance, which it's inexplicably releasing on July 2 opposite The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Certainly, the audience for a film starring Chace Crawford and Emma Roberts will have no distractions that weekend. [Variety]
Hoo boy. Let's hear it for Shonda Schilling, wife of three-time World Series champion and future Hall of Fame pitcher Curt Schilling, who joined her husband last weekend on NPR to promote their new book The Best Kind of Different: Our Family's Journey with Asperger's Syndrome. The Schillings are parents of a 10-year-old son, Grant, who was diagnosed with the disorder when he was 6. Which, as Mrs. Schilling noted last week on the air, places the young man in the company of such high-functioning autistics as Steven Spielberg. Wow! Who knew? Well, nobody, in fact -- because it's not true.
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· Sony's released new photos from Salt, including this one of first-act, blond Angelina before she goes on the run and dyes her hair dark. Is this going to be like The Fugitive, where you're tapping your foot and thinking, "Just shave, Harrison. Hurry up"?
· Curtis Hanson will direct Jay Moriarity, a biopic about the surfing legend (with Sean Penn in talks for a supporting role).
· The Anna Faris romcom What's Your Number is circling Andy Samberg and Zachary Quinto to play her ex-boyfriends.
· Might Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov helm Casebook of Victor Frankenstein?
· The eternally enrolled James Franco has his sights set on Yale next. Look, you can get a lot of discounts with a student ID. Ride that til the wheels come off, James.
You'll remember that last week's debut of the final international poster for Iron Man 2 was a little heavy on combustible Scarlett Johansson flatulence, so it's no surprise that the film's new domestic poster cleaned that element up a bit. (One can only the imagine the aggrieved calls from ScarJo's people to Marvel Studios: "But she is_ farting an explosion_, people. Her ass. It's on fire.") But amid the revisions that played up the actual hero's presence and gave Gwyneth Paltrow all the luster of a high-school-yearbook candid, the designers left out something that seems... well, important, particularly considering the ways the film has been marketed to date. Click through for the large version (and the omission).
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Rip Torn is gonna fight the man! Despite the the steep legal odds that were stacked against him after a drunk, armed Torn broke into a bank and thought it was actually his Connecticut home, the 79-year-old actor pleaded not guilty today to charges that include criminal trespass, carrying a gun without a permit, carrying a gun while intoxicated, burglary and criminal mischief. From here, it looks like he kind of did all those things, but from Torn's point-of-view, he was merely shouting "Not guilty!" into an exciting cotton candy cloud world, not a courtroom. Perspective! [HuffPo]
Are you a Ferris Bueller's Day Off fan? Who isn't, right? Nevertheless, only one megafan will win the privilege of owning a piece of Ferris history: The replica Ferrari 250GT Spyder California that the titular hero takes for a spin around Chicago with girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron, to whose father the classic car belonged. And just for the record, the auctioneer offloading the car wants you to know it's not the ravaged husk of the one John Hughes destroyed.
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Roland Emmerich has teased us with the possibility of back-to-back Independence Day sequels before, but according to IESB, they're about to become a reality. The site says that Fox has ponied up for Will Smith's fee and locked him in for both films; Emmerich will return to direct just after he completes his Shakespeare thriller Anonymous. No word yet on whether any original cast members will come back, but did the dog survive? Did it? [IESB]
Screenwriter apologies may or may not develop into a hot new Hollywood trend, but the recent mea culpas from Monster House's Dan Harmon and Battlefield Earth's J.D. Shapiro suggest a simmering remorse among many of the town's schlock-scribes. Nevertheless, Harmon and Shapiro's contrition seems a little... off. Like, those big checks you get upon starting and completing a studio project? They're not for the work -- one's a down payment on your pride, and the other buys your silence. What would really be impressive if the screenwriters of misconceived labors of "love" or otherwise auteurist fare came out and said, "Well, I effed that one up. Sorry about that!" Read on for a few recommended trailblazers of this movement, and by all means suggest your own in the comments.
It has only been four days since TLC acquired Sarah Palin's Alaska and already another Alaskan pseudo-celebrity is screeching into Hollywood to pitch his own reality show set in the Last Frontier. The new wannabe star is Levi Johnston -- Playgirl centerfold, pistachio spokesman, and Palin's grandbaby daddy -- who is hawking his own project from the back of an RV (really, an RV). But unlike Palin's pitch, which benefited from the input of seasoned reality expert Mark Burnett, Levi's pitch lacks focus. And since I'd rather watch Levi offer politically incorrect commentary on, well, anything, than see Palin tour a gold mine, hopefully Johnston will consider a few suggestions, free of charge.
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This year, MTV has opened up its Movie Awards to a series of pre-nominations voted on by the public, which means that instead of simply voting from amongst five nominees, you can select from twenty or so suggestions supplied by MTV in every category in order to eventually count toward the five nominees themselves. Whichever interns were tasked with filling out the suggestions list at the last minute picked some doozies (this may be the only place where She's Out of My League will ever get more nominations than Avatar), and in order to pay tribute to them, we at Movieline have put together this helpful guide of the dumbest MTV-supplied suggestions that you simply must vote through, en masse, until they become actual nominations.
· Want to feel old? How's this: The Charlie Sheen actioner Navy SEALS turns 20 this year. Want to feel older? Go ahead and feel nostalgic for that upon hearing the news that Walden Media is developing a graphic-novel adaptation called SEAL, about a team of elite underwater soldiers "investigating a mysterious submarine drowning in the Persian Gulf, as well as battling forces in the underwater kingdom of Atlantis." On the bright side, this means Parisot can't muck with the Slap Shot remake he'd been attached to a while back, so fast track away, fellas. [LAT]
A Lost player gets off the island, DreamWorks Animation gets some more unfortunate news, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
I caught the documentary Best Worst Movie last year around the time it debuted at ShoWest. While I dispute the claim that Troll 2 is "the best worst movie" I agree it's a lot of fun and right up there with the best-worst of 'em. Best Worst Movie takes us behind the scenes on this misbegotten horror flick, introduces us to the personalities who made it, and to the fans who've turned it into a cult over the past two decades. Now the trailer's doing the rounds, which, if nothing else will will see Troll 2 added to a lot of stoners' Netflix cues in time for the Easter weekend. Trailer after the jump, while screening dates are at the official site.
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