· Scouring the Hollywood news desert this morning for signs of life, this little critter wriggled out of the Disney region: Ian McShane is in talks to play the legendary Blackbeard in the forthcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. He'd sail the Queen Anne's Revenge up in this bitch alongside Johnny Depp and the recently cast Penelope Cruz, with Rob Marshall apparently still directing. The kids will love this. [THR]
Kevin James buddies up with Vince Vaughn, another Nicholas Sparks sudser rolls down the production line, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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· The always-cogent Robin Roberts interviewed Bruce Willis on Good Morning America. Bruce may be high on something other than a beautiful sunrise here. [YouTube]
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Don Pardo, the longtime announcer who has contributed Saturday Night Live's opening credit wails even after claiming he'd quit in 2009, turns 92 today. Darrell Hammond can't even understand that level of commitment. Since his career began in (ahem) 1938, Pardo has announced for the original versions of The Price is Right (with Bill Cullen), the original Jeopardy! (with Art Fleming), the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and all but one season of SNL. For a glimpse into Pardo's own comic chops, do enjoy his wicked contribution to the Weird Al Yankovic hit "I Lost on Jeopardy." Happy birthday, sir.
You may or may not have noticed the shocking phenomenon that occurred over the weekend, and no, it wasn't just the U.S. men's hockey team defeating Canada. This one came out of the multiplex, where Valentine's Day and The Wolfman each took second-week tumbles pushing 70 percent. Both films were expected to plunge from their opening-week heights -- particularly Valentine's Day, which was developed for the express purpose of separating dates from their money on its namesake holiday. Yet for a film so loaded with stars and with no new genre competition opening against it, 69.5 percent seemed a little... extreme. The same goes for Wolfman, against which even a new thriller like Shutter Island shouldn't normally account for a 68.7 percent drop. There are a lot of factors to consider, but they all lead to one conclusion: This is a golden age for blockbuster trash.
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Whether you think Vampire Weekend's new, star-studded music video for "Giving Up the Gun" is a work of delightful whimsy or the indie rock equivalent of a Blink-182 video, it's hard to deny that it's helped resurrect a trend that was in danger of dying: the art of stuffing celebrities into a music video. The Vampire Weekend clip can boast Jake Gyllenhaal, Joe Jonas, and the RZA among others, but can it hold a candle to these ten notable music videos that are best remembered for their star power? (Sorry, Martini Ranch. You almost made the list.)
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Long before Avatar, audiences were thrilling to the 3D adventures of blue aliens and their spacefaring humanoid friends in Captain Eo. The Michael Jackson event movie is coming back for a nostalgia-fueled limited run at Disneyland's Tomorrowland theater starting, uh, tomorrow. From the Disney Parks Blog, "While it's not possible to replicate some special effects elements from the original presentation, it will boast a new 70mm print of the film, and it will sound better than ever thanks to acoustic enhancements made to the theater since the film last played there in 1997." Hopefully the in-theater lasers and smoke effects will make an appearance (breathe it and weep, Cameron), but even if it's just the movie, it's reason enough to rejoice. [DisneyParks]
· Michael Ausiello is all over Cynthia Watros's upcoming House arc as Wilson's ex-wife, and he's got the first picture. Look, if someone could just photoshop Hurley in there, it would really help out my Lost anxiety.
· Congratulations to Top Chef hostess Padma Lakshmi, who gave birth to baby daughter Krishna over the weekend.
· It looks like Natalie Portman found inspiration on the set of her upcoming film Your Highness, because the actress is prepping another stoner comedy, Best Buds.
· "Is Ed Helms the new Steve Carell?" asks the LAT. Vance Degeneres, where are you?
· Lisa Rinna will not talk about plastic surgery anymore. This is not the same as not getting plastic surgery.
NBC has released the lineup of guests for Jay Leno's sulfurous return to The Tonight Show. Jamie Foxx, Olympian Lindsey Vonn, and musical guest Brad Paisley will inaugurate Leno's run, with decidedly un-Coco guests like Sarah Palin, Simon Cowell, and the underexposed cast of Jersey Shore in the days to follow. Get excited, everyone! [EW]
If you weren't aware that there was a sequel in the works for Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven's doggy chow-scarfing love letter to the Nevada entertainment scene, don't feel too badly about it -- neither were we. But a tip from a reader brought us up to speed: An unknown eurocommodity named Marc Volander, according to German website Extratipp, had secured $25 million in financing and was hard at work on a follow-up that would revolve around the character of Hope, played in the original by noted German model/actress/vatever, Rena Riffel. JoBlo.com translated a plot summary thusly: "It's about stripper who died from a dose of contaminated cocaine. Her brother comes to Frankfurt to find the responsible and revenge." It's a revenge-driven mystery, darlin'! And you'll want to keep that in mind as you watch the brand new and deeply inscrutable trailer, featuring more girl-on-girl softcore action and solo lip-licking than you can shake a dumbbell at. Read on for a glimpse at its nine most arresting images, as selected by a Movieline Grand Jury of one.
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Lorne Michaels is finally in negotiations with Betty White to to appear on his sketch comedy show. According to Entertainment Weekly, Michaels is planning a Saturday Night Live: Women in Comedy Special that would feature White co-hosting with several of her contemporaries, including possibly Molly Shannon, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. The special would get White inside studio 8H without depending on the octogenarian to shoulder the entire 90-minute program. But there would still be room for one condoms sketch, right? [EW]
Vancouver police have become involved in search for Andrew Koenig, 41, the actor/director/comic best known for his role as Mike Seaver's pal Boner on Growing Pains and who has been missing since Feb. 14. According to reports, Koenig missed his Feb. 16 flight back to the U.S., and his parents (including Walter Koenig, who played Chekov in the original Star Trek) say their son had recently been suffering from depression. Any clues of his whereabouts should be directed to the Vancouver Police Department. [PopEater]
· The Taylor Lautner-attached screenplay Abduction found a home at Lionsgate, which reportedly paid around $1 million for the story of a teenager "who has long felt disconnected from his parents, and figures out why." I know that sounds like a lot for an action spec in this economy, but you try negotiating someone down when there's a rarer-than-rare Tasmanian Lautner involved. [Deadline]
50 Cent goes back to school, Miramax welcomes bidders, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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Monetarily speaking, that is. After the gluttonous sugar-rush of Valentine's Day, America lay crashed, dazed and brokenhearted in a drift of empty chocolate wrappers this weekend. It just so happens, however, that that was the ideal psychological state in which to fully appreciate a Shyamalanian thriller from Martin Scorsese set entirely on a water-locked prison for psychotic murderers. We'll ask now that you please relinquish your firearms as you join us on ... WEEKEND RECEIPTS ISLAND! (The forecast calls for hurricanes and heavy Boston accents.)
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Shutter Island did what it was supposed to do Friday, riding the DiCaprio/Scorsese Express to $14.1 million and an easy number-one over some very soft competition. Last week's blockbuster Valentine's Day utterly folded -- setting itself up for a second-weekend drop of more than 70 percent -- while Percy Jackson fared only moderately better in third place. And behind them, Avatar made a decent-enough stride in its climb to $700 million. Read on for Friday's full top 10.
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It's Friday on a short work week that nevertheless felt about a thousand hours long, so there's no point in dragging this out. We've got your Week in Review after the jump! Have a great weekend!
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