· Meet actress Brit Morgan: as the psychotic villainess Debbie Pelt, she's the last piece in True Blood's season three casting puzzle. [Headshot by David Noles]
· Spider-Man producers may be taking our casting advice, as Percy Jackson star (and Verge alum) Logan Lerman says he's in early talks to play Peter Parker in the franchise reboot.
· Brittany Murphy's cause of death has been determined: community acquired pneumonia, iron deficiency anemia, and multiple drug intoxication.
· Elizabeth Mitchell talked to TV Guide about Juliet's second death scene on Lost.
· Ellie Kemper, who plays receptionist Erin on The Office, used to be a high school drama student of Mr. Jon Hamm. Those parent-teacher conferences must have been packed.
A few days after Sony Pictures announced it would lay off 450 staffers, the company was revealed to have a $153 million operating profit in 2009. That's a 9 percent jump over 2008's profit, aided largely by international grosses for This is It and 2012 and superb home-video showings for Angels and Demons and Terminator Salvation. Perhaps fittingly, then, the bulk of Sony layoffs will reportedly come from... the home-entertainment division. Cold. [Variety]
Mel Gibson is still recuperating from a recent image hiccup, in which he called entertainment journalist Dean Richards an "a**hole" on live TV when he thought the cameras had already turned off. Gibson claimed shortly after the incident that he was actually referring to his publicist, who was "making funny faces" off-camera. (Little-known fact: The Jews are responsible for most of the world's off-camera funny faces.) On his trip this week to France to promote Edge of Darkness, Canal+ journalist Ariane Massene said she approached the interview "with a little fear because you have a stormy relationship with journalists." Another panelist said, "Did you come prepared with French curse words for French journalists?" Gibson replied, "I mean no. It usually comes out in English if I'm angry. I have a short fuse. I'm trying to work on it." [People]
Sometimes the news leaves little room for commentary beyond a gaping jaw and/or silently shaking head, and that's pretty much what you'll experience while browsing a new list of the top Hollywood earners of 2009. It's not necessarily the mere appearance of Roland Emmerich, Owen Wilson, or the Harry Potter cast that inspires disbelief, but rather wherethey ranking among such well-heeled regulars as Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay or George Clooney that really catches one's breath. Or maybe I'm just too easily shocked. Test your fortitude with the revelations after the jump.
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Alex Meraz, who did some wonderful shirtless-werewolf work in New Moon, was forthright to a fault in his Twitter feed about costar Taylor Lautner's new ensemble romantic comedy, Valentine's Day, writing: "Sorry Taylor but the movie "valentines day" looks lame and desperate it cries out "look we have all the biggest starz in 1movie pleez watch!" One hour later, he was beginning to have second thoughts: "P.S. it has nothing to do with the talented actors in the movie I just don't like the producer & Directors "get rich quick skeem" nuff said" It wasn't long after that before full remorse was in effect: "Talk about biting the hand that feeds me..but I'm a wolf for crying out loud! I'll be careful next time I spill twitter all over everyone." At that point, however, the damage was already done, and not even a desperate attempt to change the subject ("Balinese Monkey Chant...one of the most amazing things I've ever seen!") could numb him from the realization that he'd just tweeted himself out of a gig on any future projects involving (in alphabetical order) Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamies Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, George Lopez, Shirley Maclaine, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift and the director of Pretty Woman. [@TheAlexMeraz]
The indie drama Soul Surfer has announced its cast, adding Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt, AnnaSophia Robb and Carrie Underwood to its tale of shark attack survivor Bethany Hamilton. American Idol winner Underwood, in her feature film debut, will play a church youth leader. Ugh, Faith Hill is so mad right now! [Variety]
· After a bidding skirmish over the possibly truth-challenged Sundance documentary Catfish, Relativity Media has grabbed rights to the film for a reported $1.5 million. Paramount, whose test screening this week resulted in strong-but-not-strong-enough audience scores, was said to have bowed out after the producers sniffed at a planned viral campaign a la Paranormal Activity. Relativity, meanwhile, will distribute through its Rogue Pictures label; Brett Ratner helped engineer the deal and will receive an executive producer credit. Let the Ratfish gags commence. [Variety]
Fox Searchlight and Hilary Swank try for a do-over, new sequels abound, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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Channing Tatum's newest entrepreneurial endeavor concerns the actor's most sprawling project yet -- love. At his new website www.postthelove.com, the Dear John star explains (in video) why love is important, why you should post love on the website, and generally says the word "love" many times. Continue scratching your head after the jump, where we post his first love-centric video to all his love troubadours in the worldwide love village.
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Hug it out with your broker, because you can now purchase the Bob Saget sitcom Full House's famous San Francisco house for $4.1 million. Other homes in the area go for less than half that amount, but let's review the perks: You get the bedroom where DJ had an eating disorder for 22 minutes, the kitchen where Comet ate everyone's homework, and the basement where Uncle Joey honed his ventriloquist comedy and Stephanie got going on that meth addiction. Memories. That's what you get on the bottom line. [AOL]
Lindsay Lohan's shocking admission that she counts herself among the ranks of the unwashed hoarding underclass -- those crap-amassing social lepers trotted out weekly for our rubbernecking enjoyment on a certain popular basic cable series -- was nothing short of earth-shattering. What forgotten-pet pancakes and dismissed-intern skeletons might be interred in the overstuffed closets of America's favorite shock-starlet, after a decade swerving in and out of the freebie-friendly Hollywood fast lane? It just so happens your friends at Movieline have a man on the inside of the City of Los Angeles Department of Sanitation, who slipped us this very partial inventory of items recovered in the ongoing, court-ordered cleanup of the premises.
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For the first time in fifteen years*, the Super Bowl-carrying network will introduce a new series in its lead-out time slot. On the heels of the most-watched television event of the year, the coveted post-game position is usually reserved for the network's most popular show (Friends, The Simpsons, Survivor in past years) or in rare years like this one, a new series that the network just about guarantees to be a hit. This Sunday, CBS is forgoing an episode of established hits like Criminal Minds or NCIS in favor of Undercover Boss, a reality venture in which the executive of a major company goes undercover as an entry-level worker. In honor of the Tiffany network's big gamble on Sunday, let's look back on nine other series that got their successful (and unsuccessful) starts as Super Bowl lead-outs.
*Movieline is not counting Fox's American Dad as a lead-out to the 2005 Super Bowl, since it aired after The Simpsons.
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CBS has announced that President Barack Obama will crash each and every one of your Super Bowl parties on Sunday by appearing during CBS's four-hour pre-game show. At approximately 4:30 p.m. ET, Katie Couric will interview Obama live from Miami, two hours before the 6:30 p.m. kickoff. Don't count on him for bringing the onion dip though. [USA Today]
· Kellan Lutz is doing his best Marky Mark in this just-released shot from the new Calvin Klein campaign. One more of Mehcad Brooks (Eggs from True Blood!) after the jump.
· Formerly reclusive Terrence Malick is lining up his next project, a romance set to star Christian Bale, Javier Bardem, and Rachel McAdams.
· Thankfully, Simon Monjack has cancelled his tacky Brittany Murphy-exploiting self-fundraiser.
· Daryl Hannah's adding fuel to the long-simmering fire that there will be a third Kill Bill flick.
· Lost's premiere actually improved on its year-ago numbers. Good luck at making sense of the show, newbies!
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As predicted, Avatar crossed the final hurdle into the Hollywood history books yesterday, ringing up enough tickets to bring its cumulative domestic total to $601,141,551 -- or $353,363 more than previous champ Titanic. The 601 million blue balloons we reported would fall at the precise moment the record-shattering ticket was sold, however, failed to appear. Hopefully this artistic rendering will give you some idea of what that might have felt like. [BoxOfficeMojo]
· While most of the reaction to Rupert Murdoch's quarterly earnings call Tuesday concerned the mogul's stance on welcoming Conan O'Brien to the Fox fold, the call was also notable for Murdoch's unequivocal (if slightly subdued) acknowledgment that an Avatar sequel is on the way. Eventually. Someday. Murdoch said the studio is in "very early talks about it" and that James Cameron "has ideas" for a sequel, but warned as well not to "hold your breath for an early one." Which is to say, Christmas 2014? Summer 2015? I think this calls for an office pool. [THR]
Hugh Jackman opts for Chinese, Brad Pitt doubles up with Michael Lewis, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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