30 Rock returned last night to a 27% drop in adult demos, losing a quarter of its lead-in from The Office (which itself was down from last week's OK-rated wedding episode). Did the audience diminish due to the loss of Fey's bête noire Sarah Palin, or were viewers just confused by that super long, confusing short film by Jack McBrayer that swallowed up a commercial break? Seriously, what was that thing? [THR]
As predicted, Balloon Boy began cashing in on his fifteen minutes of fame with an all-star interview line-up: CNN's Wolf Blitzer, NBC's Meredith Vieira, and ABC's Diane Sawyer. All segments were given from the comfort of Balloon Boy's Colorado home, surrounded by his family and punctuated by on-camera gastro-intestinal discomfort. So what's the deal: was Balloon Boy suffering from nerves, the overwhelming stress of being the pawn in his parents' publicity stunt, or is he just a weird little kid?
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While attending the launch of the National Schools Film Week -- a period of free moviegoing for schoolchildren across the UK -- Danny Boyle offered a modest proposal for curbing international film piracy: Make theaters cheaper, and adopt "more aggressive marketing techniques to do with price." This, he suggested, will propel young people into cinemas, thus preserving the endangered ritual of text-messaging one's immediate, truncated reactions while sitting with an annoyed crowd eating $5 boxes of Junior Mints in the dark. Yes, please, let's make a deal. [The Guardian]
· Perhaps realizing that a vacation from mega-budget overexposure might be in order, Will Ferrell will downsize both on- and off-screen in the $10 million indie Everything Must Go. Based on a Raymond Carver short story, the film will star Ferrell as a man whose wife locks him and his belongings out of their house. The ensuing sale of the items unfolds over four days of bittersweet life lessons, concluding with a curmudgeonly grandfather-type negotiating Ferrell down to 50 cents for a signed Land of the Lost script. [Variety]
A Vampire Diaries star clings to what he knows, M. Night Shyamalan outsources a new leading man, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
Welcome back to Movieline Attractions, your regular guide to everything new, noteworthy and/or overly noxious at the movies. This week, Gerard Butler gets even-ish, Penn Badgley drags a minor cult classic to hell, and the Wild Things are finally in the house. But are they welcome? More burning questions and answers after the jump.
· We'd love to show you the Expendables sizzle reel that's been making the rounds over the last 24 hours, but Lionsgate keeps trying to stamp it out. So here's the Movieline summary, in case the video after the jump gets pulled: Jason Statham is sweaty, Sylvester Stallone is slurry, and Jet Li is chopsocky. Just how we like 'em!
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NBC Universal is syndicating Bravo's Real Housewives franchise for daily play on locally owned stations, which would be great news for the Housewives stars if the deal earned them any money. According to Freddyo.com, the titular ladies aren't part of an actors union and are therefore not entitled to royalties. That said, only the Orange County, New York, Atlanta, and New Jersey versions are planned for distribution. The upcoming Washington D.C. version -- in a move that may benefit its stars -- is tardy for the party. [EW]
Ripping a page from Jack Donaghy's playbook ("Never badmouth synergy"), NBC has declared Jon Bon Jovi its 'Artist in Residence' over the next two months. No, he won't be traipsing around 30 Rockefeller Center, serenading the HR department, but he will be exclusively promoting his upcoming album "The Circle" on NBC Universal programs. His Peacock-monogrammed schedule includes segments on Today, The Jay Leno Show, Saturday Night Live, Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio and even an interview on NBC Nightly News. So just who was behind this idea to "reinvent the wheel" and who should ABC, CBS, and Fox start claiming as their indentured musicians?
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There's something weird about Law Abiding Citizen, and it isn't simply the movie's attempt to gussy up the legal thriller genre with gruesome, Saw-style theatrics. No, the most notable thing about the film is how it appears to inadvertently channel the recent, inchoate Republican anger at the Obama administration and use it to power a violent revenge fantasy. Don't believe me? Here are four ways Law Abiding Citizen feels like a Republican wet dream. Mild spoilers ahead:
Now invading Twitter, CNN, People, and an upcoming Weekly World News near you: A 6-year-old boy in Colorado named Falcon Heene, the son of a science-obsessed couple who appeared on ABC's Wife Swap, allegedly flew as high as 10,000 feet in the air after stepping inside the family's helium-powered, UFO-shaped balloon. Speculation abounds whether the boy actually stepped into the balloon before it ascended since no one was found in the aircraft after it finally landed in a field; some reports suggest that the boy is hiding in the woods for fear of recriminations, while others state that the balloon's basket detached during flight. Developing... UPDATE: According to CNN, Heene has been found alive. [HuffPost]
"Ridley Scott is attached to direct." It's among the most abused phrases in Hollywood, arising every few months as the nearly 72-year-old filmmaker tacks a new project on to his schedule, both dazzling the world with his productivity and cracking it up with his delusion. Brilliant as he is (or can be), this man is no Steven Soderbergh or Werner Herzog, and today's announcement of Scott's ninth directorial development in three years has Movieline's bookmaking department laying odds on the likelihood (or lack thereof) of any of them seeing the light of day. Place your bets after the jump.
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Shortly after Saturday Night Live announced that Taylor Swift would host its November 7 show, news outlets rushed "Taylor-Kanye Skit!" headlines in giddy anticipation of an actually funny topical sketch. The Associated Press was the first to track down MTV's most famous VMA interuptee so that she could cheekily poke fun at her arsenal of material for Studio 8H: "I've been thinking about skit ideas for a long time...There are definitely some hilarious things that have happened to me over the past couple of months that I think will be pretty substantial skits."
We get it, there will be a Kanye sketch, but the real money is on what kind of Kanye segment the show will choose. Three possibilities after the jump.
On The View this morning, 24-year-old virgin Tina Fey was asked about the passage in Tracy Morgan's new book where he disses ex-Saturday Night Live castmates Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan. "One thing I think is that if you say something about comedians, they will answer you," she said. "I feel like we will hear from them. Comedians are not like politicians, [who] kind of have to take it. Comedians are like, 'Oh really? Let me say something to you!'" Fantastic! Someone begin scouring copies of Backstage West and the Broward County Gazette for their rebuttals. [Jezebel]
· Hey, it's the poster for Did You Hear About the Morgans?, an impending comedy with Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker. And no, I had not heard about it. Those were the days!
· Nina Garcia is back on Project Runway, and she hates Nicolas just as much as we all have.
· The Playlist has learned that Evan Rachel Wood's joined The Conspirator.
· Jon & Kate is over. The show, I mean. TLC will squeeze out a couple more episodes' worth of Mady outtakes and then brutally smother the series with an XL Ed Hardy long-sleeved tee.
· It's the 10th anniversary of Fight Club! But then, we can't talk about that.
Cross another possible contender off your Oscar '09 ballot: Terrence Malick reportedly won't have his decades-in-the-making The Tree of Life ready to go by the end of the year. The film features Brad Pitt as the father of a boy whose lost innocence haunts him as he grows into a man played by Sean Penn. As per Malick's usual, it's highly conceptual, rigorously crafted and now indefinitely delayed.
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