That's the hilarious five-day number making the rounds thanks to the folks at AEG Live, the concert promoters behind Michael Jackson's swan-song concert doc opening Oct. 28. Granted, the film is opening on 11,000 screens worldwide on Oct. 28, and there are more than a few cultish followers sucking up mountains of advance tickets. But $23,000 per screen implies a must-see, and do you personally know anyone who considers This is It a Dark Knight / Spider-Man / Pirates of the Caribbean-level must-see? Can I bet they're fewer than your friends who think Jackson's first posthumously released song is unlistenable? Spin away, Team AEG, but back off the Propofol. That stuff kills. [DHD]
If anyone can and should follow Jeremy Piven's remarkable performance fielding Time readers' softball questions, it would be Tracy Morgan. And just like that, while promoting his memoir I Am the New Black this week, Morgan faced 10 queries ranging from memories of SNL to the Emmys to diabetes ("[O]ne day I got really sick. The doctor was like, 'Hey, listen, we may have to take your foot.'"), but he saved perhaps his best insight for last as a reader sought Morgan's thoughts on Barack Obama's recent Nobel Peace Prize win.
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· Jonah Hill piled another project on to his plate for 2010, signing on to co-write and contribute voice work for a new, untitled animated series for Fox. The show will follow a wealthy 7-year-old who behaves and talks like an adult but whose life is turned upside down when he's forced to attend public school. The equally busy Peter Chernin will produce; I think we'd all rather see Hill tackle Chernin's big Moses project instead, but as usual, they neglected to ask us. [Variety]
Clive Owen to experience the David Schwimmer touch, William H. Macy gets patriarchal, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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· E!'s got the whispered foreplay leading up to Gossip Girl's heavily hyped man-on-Ed-Westwick kiss, which will hopefully fare better than the same-sex experimentation just seen on its Monday night neighbor Heroes. Watch as Westwick's Chuck Bass boasts that he'll only need five minutes to seduce the tall drink of water at the end of the bar -- one minute to murmur some small talk, and four more to locate a stepladder. Click through for the clip:
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Vulture correspondent Maridel Reyes conducted an interview with Vincent Kartheiser at the launch party for the new limited-edition Mad Men suit (this is a thing!), and though the actor was fairly neutral on the subject of dismissed writer Kater Gordon, he didn't miss a chance to self-flagellate. On getting recognized: "No one's walking down the street expecting to see the fourth lead on a show they may or may not have seen." On the swine flu: "I'm more worried about mercury poisoning...I'm on the Jeremy Piven diet of being an asshole." On the left coast's Spanish-speaking population: "No one looks at me on the bus in L.A... Mad Men's not on Telemundo yet." [Vulture]
Fox issued a statement today acknowledging that an NFL Sunday cartoon skit mocking Jessica Simpson's weight was "insensitive" and "a poor attempt at humor." A speedy apology, and I hope they issue the next one just as fast for renewing The Cleveland Show. Quick to cover the story objectively, US Weekly posted the apology on its website between links labeled "Check out pics of stars pigging out" and "See the plastic surgery nightmares of Jessica and other celebs." Video of the apologized-for skit after the jump.
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· Over at The Film Experience, Nathaniel Rogers was so nervous before his buzzed-about screening of Precious that he channeled his anxiety into an iPhone portrait of the title character. That's all fine and good, but you should see my Sidekick rendition of Skids from Transformers 2. It's written all in ASCII code, and it's terribly racist.
· The Cleveland Show has been picked up for a full second season. Yes, already.
· People's got an exclusive photo of Heather Locklear's return to Melrose Place.
· The Playlist has seen Spike Jonze's Maurice Sendak doc, Tell Them Anything You Want.
· Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester on her new single: "It feels like sexy." What exactly does that feel like? And will I have to wash my hands after?
There's a certain something that happens to you when you're covering Oscar season and playing lots of The Beatles: Rock Band at the same time: You start to notice how almost every one of the top contenders for Best Picture this year has a Beatles song that describes it perfectly. Is that a tribute to the Beatles' discography, or does this year's crop of movies just possess an uncanny thematic link to their songbook? Let Movieline present our findings to you, and then you can be the judge.
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Filmmakers often talk about how dire limitations fuel the most rewarding creativity. If that's the case, then Roman Polanski's upcoming film The Ghost should be the best of his career -- especially now that he's decided to finish it from a jail cell.
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The quickly assembled A&E Jackson brother reality project is shape-shifting again, this time to include Michael Jackson's three children. To see which Jacksons are onboard for Blanket's reality debut, follow us after the jump. (Hint: It's not just Joe.)
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After mining mother-daughter relationships to great success in Gilmore Girls but finding less luck with sisterly bonds in The Return of Jezebel James, writer Amy Sherman-Palladino is combining both themes for her new HBO pilot. THR says it will feature three writer sisters who live in the same building, "and their mother, a domineering literary lioness who reserves most of her affections for their ne'er-do-well brother." I suspect it will also feature Sherman-Palladino's signature rapid-fire patter, this time with swears. [THR]
Several hundred journalists packed the Grand Ballroom of The Dorchester today for a press panel for Fantastic Mr. Fox, which kicks off the 53rd BFI London Film Festival later this evening. Here are nine things we took away from our shared time with George Clooney, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Wes Anderson, Jarvis Cocker, and others:
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I probably wouldn't have led any story about an 86-year-old man with the declaration, "Billionaire Sumner Redstone is breathing easier," but that's beside the point this morning for the Viacom kingpin. With a $500 million debt payment coming due and his National Amusements cinemas on the auction block, the struggling Redstone hit a minor jackpot with Viacom and CBS Corp. shares last quarter and will reportedly hang on to the theaters (and the land they occupy) until the real estate market rebounds. He still probably won't pay the full half-billion, but just hush and take your Redstonian economy bellwethers where you can get them. [LAT]
· While he already has a directing project going at Columbia, Gus Van Sant is aboard as a writer on an adaptation of The Golden Suicides, a Vanity Fair feature about the life and shocking death of the art-world darlings Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake. Which would be intriguing enough, except that novelist Bret Easton Ellis will collaborate with Van Sant to achieve the maximum level of decadent ennui allowed by law. The director's chair remains open for now; I've got $10 on Julian Schnabel. [Variety]
Chris Pine is reportedly being groomed for a top spy slot, the Tommy Lee Jones-Matthew McConaughey project you've been desperately awaiting is here, and much more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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· We've seen it coming since July, and here it is: the YouTube mashup that places the Antichrist catch phrase "Chaos reigns" in the mouth of Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox. Talking foxes are the new muse for difficult auteurs! The clip, after the jump:
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