Tyler Perry appeared on 60 Minutes last night, and any chance of revelatory fireworks was considerably muted by correspondent Byron Pitts, whose impassive reactions and not-exactly-penetrating follow-ups left Perry twisting in the wind. However, there were two good moments. One of them involved Oprah declaring of Perry, "Do not play him small, because he is not just some lucky, rich Negro turned black man." OK! The other?
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Samantha Geimer, the woman whom Roman Polanski drugged and raped when she was 13 (and with whom the director later settled out of court), has had pretty much enough of this Polanski-arrest-and-extradition drama over the last month. Citing intense media scrutiny, health problems, job duress and periodic calls from Larry King himself, Geimer on Friday filed a motion to dismiss the case against Polanski and get back to what's left of her life in Hawaii.
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Remember that recent DirectTV ad where John Belushi reenacts the potato-spitting scene from Animal House with a mouthful of hard drugs Chris Farley sings "Fat Guy in a Little Coat" for the benefit of David Spade's checking account? David Spade sent Asylum an explanation: "When DIRECT TV came to me and the Farley family with this idea about Tommy Boy, we talked and thought it would be a cool way to remind people just how funny Chris was. It is a clever homage to my friend and a movie that we loved doing." To be fair, at least it wasn't a clip from Almost Heroes. [Asylum]
Amid all the Stateside discussion of whether The Fantastic Mr. Fox is a film for the whole family or a kind of high-caliber over-25 broodfest, the film's marketing army in the UK has fallen squarely on the side of the kids. How can you tell? Collect the reasons -- and why they're a good thing -- after the jump.
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· Cinematical's got the new poster for Sherlock Holmes. Click for full-size.
· Woody Allen's latest has a title -- You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger -- and a plot description, which says the film "revolves around different members of a family, their tangled love lives and their attempts to try to solve their problems." Novel territory!
· Mitch Hurwitz is revealing some of the secrets of the upcoming Arrested Development movie -- including that it will be set partially in prison.
· Congratulations to Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss and Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen, who tied the knot yesterday.
· Speaking of Mad Men, why is Matthew Weiner favoring little, homicidal Sally Draper so much this season? "[Kiernan Shipka] is such a great actress," Weiner explained at the Austin Film Festival. "You know, I said to her at some party -- I'd probably had a drink -- 'You are a really interesting person.'"
Ricky Gervais has made a habit of scene-stealing at the most unlikely sort of forum -- awards ceremonies -- and thus, it's no surprise that his name has long been floated to host one. Congratulations are due to the actor, then, because he's been selected to host the 67th Annual Golden Globes in January. Still, there's something a little weird about this.
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How I Married Jennifer Lopez: The J-lo and and Ojani Noa Story is described by its makers -- that would be Noa himself, who was married to Lopez from 1997 to 1998, and producer Ed Meyer -- as a "Borat-style mockumentary" in which the obsessed ex-Mr. Lopez chases down his former wife in the name of unrequited love (read: parasitic profile augmentation). This wouldn't be the first time Noah had attempted to cash in on Lopez's notoriety -- a planned tell-all book about their time together was met in 2007 with an injunction preventing the Cuba native from "licensing, disseminating, distribution... any book manuscript or other written materials which contain private or intimate details about Lopez or Noa's relationship with Lopez." By framing the film as a parody, however, producers thought they had found the perfect loophole.
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On Friday night, Jay Leno squandered a potentially fortuitous appearance by First Lady Michelle Obama to ask her about Halloween costumes, her iPod playlist (was this another corporate plug?) and the birthday party she threw for her dog. Wherever your entertainment preferences lie, rest assured that the first lady's chit chatty segment still boosted Leno's ratings 17%, out of the toilet in which his numbers triumphantly plunged last week. With 6.1 million viewers, The Jay Leno Show managed to beat out Fox's Dollhouse. [Hollywood Reporter]
With a bountiful production schedule in place that includes three recently wrapped features and roughly seven projects in development, no one expected Jennifer Aniston to join her Friends alums in venturing back to the small screen. Sure, maybe she would reprise that old lesbian bit on Courteney Cox's sexually charged Cougar Town or return to 30 Rock as Jack Donaghy's crazy, hat-making two-night stand, but develop her own talk show...on cable?
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It's always hard to agree exactly what constitutes a flop, particularly those of the historic variety -- the ones that will join Heaven's Gate, Ishtar, Gigli and the beloved, DOA Delgo. You can't even really count this year's notorious Land of the Lost -- which ultimately grossed back half its $100 million budget in the U.S. alone -- among their ranks. Thankfully, the weekend yielded an under-promoted, limited-release, unequivocal catastrophe for the ages seasonal slouch [see update after the jump]. And no, it wasn't Amelia (though she was pretty close).
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Though ABC has been tight-lipped about when the final season of Lost will be premiering (refusing to get any more specific than "early 2010"), a hyperventilating Harvard student forced visiting producer Carlton Cuse to give up some of the goods this weekend. To calm the ailing Lost superfan, Cuse revealed that the show will return in mid-January, go off the air opposite the Winter Olympics, then resume, full speed ahead, until its series finale. [Arts at Harvard]
During World War II, Americans channeled their civilian energy into war bonds, scrap metal drives and USO volunteer efforts. Over fifty years later, our country is again in peril but we choose to take our minds off of combat with a different kind of distraction: gross-out television. In honor of this shift in wartime priorities and the upcoming Halloween holiday, Movieline has compiled some of the creepiest TV shows on basic cable today. While scanning through this article instead of reading about this weekend's Baghdad bombings, consider which is worse: knowing that pedophiles in the Southwest are pleasuring themselves to TLC's Toddlers & Tiaras or at this moment, a Discovery Health camera crew is staging a reenactment of an Arby's bathroom birth?
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Director Kenny Ortega is about to see his stock skyrocket after the upcoming premiere of his Michael Jackson film This Is It, so it's a good thing Paramount had him already locked in to next direct the studio's musical remake of Footloose, right? And surely, after casting leads Chace Crawford and Julianne Hough and asking for a mere $5 million upgrade to the film's $25 million budget, Ortega would find the studio to be amenable to his wishes, wouldn't he?
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· January Jones has signed on for Unknown White Male, in which she'll play the wife of a man (Liam Neeson) who awakes from a coma to find that his identity has been stolen in a massive conspiracy. Even she can't believe he is who he says he is, which, after last night's Mad Men, is quite the character stretch; Diane Kruger will co-star as a slightly more trusting Berlin cab driver who unexpectedly comes to Neeson's aide. Joel Silver will produce under his Dark Castle banner, meanwhile, promising a customarily sensitive exploration of identity issues through gunfire and hand-to-hand combat. [Variety]
Ron Livingston is invited to Dinner, Deadliest Catch gets a much-needed (?) video game do-over, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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The Church of Scientology has long claimed many of Hollywood's most elite talents amongst its members, but now, one famous Scientologist is leaving the church, and he's not going quietly. In a candid, confrontational letter to Scientology top brass that's just been published online, Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis (Crash) details the abuses and cover-ups that have forced him to to leave Scientology after 35 years. It's a must-read.
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