In one of the most persuasive anti-fur statement since the New Moon Wolfpack waxed its chests, Twilight Saga bit player Christian Serratos joined forces with PETA this week to launch a new campaign against animal consumption. But while it looks great and has drawn plenty of notice to both the film and the animal-rights activists since its unveiling Monday, Twilight's custodians at Summit Entertainment (not to mention its Mormon source novelist Stephenie Meyer) probably aren't as impressed by the NSFW poster co-opting their chaste tween blockbuster. Click through to see it.
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It may sound hard to believe, but hall-of-fame reality villain Omarosa is having difficulty finding a man. Thus her new teaming with Donald Trump for Omarosa's Ultimate Merger, in which the reviled Apprentice witch will narrow 12 eligible bachelors down to one for the African-American-geared network TV One. "Omarosa is smart, witty and difficult, but all of those qualities will make for some very interesting entertainment," Trump said in a statement. The part in the pilot episode where she disengages her jaw to gulp the first castoff down in two bites is said to be particularly worth seeing. [Variety]
Tracy Morgan's unusual methodology of writing a memoir, weeping on NPR, joining Twitter, preaching his affinity for anal sex and throwing Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan under his steamroller all combined over the weekend for a revisionist punchline to the classic cornball joke, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" And his ensuing blue streak onstage -- which reportedly prompted walkouts and complaints -- may answer the question, "How do you never get invited back?"
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· Winona Ryder is the latest actress to grab a role in Black Swan, perhaps better known as Darren Aronofsky's lesbian-ballet-psychodrama thriller previously boasting Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. Meanwhile Fox Searchlight, which distributed Aronofsky's The Wrestler and can appreciate a quality comely-Jewess showcase like this when it sees one, is reportedly in talks to co-finance and distribute. [THR]
Matthew Weiner's feature debut is delayed, Len Wiseman pursues the apocalypse, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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· Jezebel has tracked down a rep for Emma Thompson, who had agreed to remove her name from the letter of Roman Polanski support hosted on French intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy's website -- but whose name is still there. The rep said Thompson had "requested that her name be removed when she said she would. We have asked for confirmation from them but have not yet received it."
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· A few new images from James Franco's mysteriously motivated arc on General Hospital have surfaced. We deduced that Franco will run some sort of furniture/art showroom while moonlighting as a graffiti artist and taming stormy relationships with Maxie (Kirsten Storms) and a new character, played by Lost's Marsha Thomason. New interpretations welcome.
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· Look closely at the top of that mushroom and you'll see the Alan Rickman-voiced Caterpillar from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which had been absent from marketing materials until now.
· The new Weinstein Co. trailer of A Single Man may have been de-gayed, but at least The Advocate is serving up a story of Ford's first blowjob.
· In a talk with Slashfilm, X2 writer Michael Dougherty shared his thoughts on what a Ratner-less X-Men 3 could have been.
· Sorry, Bad Movies We Love fans: The Aeon Flux Blu-Ray appears to have been canceled.
· Eminem is set to star in the 3D film Shady Talez. Very lucky that the rapper managed to find financiers who've collectively lived in a cave since 2004.
· Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to star in the sci-fi thriller Source Code, the planned follow-up of Moon director Duncan Jones. Gyllenhaal would portray a soldier who wakes up one day in the body of an unfamiliar commuter forced to relive a train bombing until he can discover who's responsible for it. It's said to be loosely based on screenwriters who experienced a similar dilemma with this story for two years, from Universal to current studio Summit, until they finally were able to pin the whole thing on Groundhog Day. [Variety]
An animated Antonio Banderas goes native, Jamie Foxx and Martin Lawrence play dress-up, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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We met the Ghost of Box-Office Future on Friday, and yesterday brought the Ghost of Box-Office Present. Today, the Ghost of Box-Office Past pays a visit with a look back at Hollywood's weekend receipts. And unless you work at Disney, there's really no need to be scared.
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After lugging a train around the country all year in an attempt to hype its expensive holiday investment, Disney was rewarded with a $8,960,000 Friday for its version of A Christmas Carol, which falls into the low end of expectations. (The studio has long-range plans for this one and inflated 3D prices will help, but it's a soft start). Meanwhile, The Fourth Kind managed to convince your mom that it was Paranormal Activity and wound up in second place, while The Men Who Stare at Goats and The Box opened merely OK in light of conservative expectations for both. Full figures after the jump:
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And so we've reached another Friday at Movieline, where your editors welcomed all cultural creatures large and small into our peaceable kingdom. How about that view of LAX, eh? All right, well, anyway, try to focus on only the happiest, most rewarding and satisfying happenings and developments from the last week -- I can help you with that after the jump. Have a wonderful weekend!
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· Topless Robot reminds us that before Angels & Demons, Saving Private Ryan, and Philadelphia, there was Mazes and Monsters -- a made-for-TV movie starring Tom Hanks as an RPG enthusiast who lurks in alleyways, stabbing stuntmen in really shoddy-looking lizard suits. The climax takes place on the roof of the WTC, further underscoring the movie's underlying message that virgins cause terrorism.
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Congratulations to our winners this week, as they're about to get Facebook tagged in David Fincher's heavily annotated behind-the-scenes pictures from the set of his new movie, The Social Network. Just understand that the notoriously demanding director has his own technique, and don't be surprised if your inbox fills up with emails as Fincher tags and detags you, unable to satisfy his perfectionist streak on matters as simple as which smattering of pixels to click on. So who won?
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No, it's not a typo. Your Friday trade-news dump is one of the more exotic in recent memory, as Gwyneth Paltrow will join Nicole Kidman in The Danish Girl, featuring Kidman as the first post-operative transsexual. Paltrow will play his/her wife, a painter whose request for her husband to fill in for an absent female model -- stockings, frocks and all -- resulted in a popular series of portraits that came to permute his sexual identity. Drama ensues -- as will about 100 glossy cover stories and an inevitable Goop blogging hiatus while Paltrow is shooting. Enjoy it. [BF Deal Memo]
· Other sites are going mad for this picture of Jon Hamm as a high school jock, but I'm getting a real Andy Samberg vibe from him here. Am I nuts?
· The Daily Beast rounds up Tina Fey's 10 favorite bits of 30 Rock dialogue.
· Stars came out to the Paley Center on Wednesday night to debate one essential question: Is Chad Michael Murray a douche?
· World of Wonder is pretty sure that General Hospital has already introduced James Franco's character. His hand, at least.
· The notoriously emotionless, uneffusive Paula Abdul cried three times while watching Precious, reports Page Six. Imagine the waterworks if the titular Harlem teen had been played by Adam Lambert!
