Was ex-SNLer Casey Wilson really fired for refusing to lose weight, as E! claimed? "I had an amazing time on [Saturday Night Live], and these rumors are completely untrue," Wilson told People after a week of keeping mum. "And to clarify, the issue isn't that I'm too fat, it's that I'm too phat. Can I get a WHAT-WHAT!" Yeah...that's why she got fired right there. [People]
· Among the seemingly dozens of remake and reboot ideas that march tiredly through Movieline HQ every week, one or two sort of stride the corridors with resilience and authority, daring everyone they come into contact with to suggest they don't belong in Hollywood. A new version of True Grit brought to us by the Big Lebowski braintrust of Joel and Ethan Coen and Jeff Bridges would be one of those ideas. The brothers have reportedly locked down a script for Paramount that's closer to Charles Portis's source novel than the original 1969 adaptation, which earned John Wayne an Oscar for his portrayal of the aging U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn. The Coens' version would stay closer to Portis's original Western, told through the point of view of a 14-year-old girl; surely the brothers won't receive any requests to elaborate on any of this while they promote A Serious Man this week in Toronto. [Variety]
Ellen Page, Rainn Wilson and Liv Tyler get heroic, Josh Hartnett gets apocalyptic, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
Welcome back to Movieline Attractions, your regular guide to everything new, noteworthy and left over from the summer at the movies. Or maybe that's not entirely fair; we all know Madea won't stand for being called leftovers, and Sorority Row waited its turn in the late-summer genre queue just like the rest of them. We'll sort it all out after the jump.
· "I feel a combination of relaxed and aroused in your company," Russell Brand told the ladies of The View today, though it appeared he was most enamored by Sherri Shepherd, whose vow of celibacy he was intent on breaking. "Somehow I think I walked away from this show with a date," Shepherd later Tweeted. Yes, and somehow Brand walked away from the show with her bra and two of her spare wigs. Clip below.
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Yesterday, we reported that Oprah Winfrey was already calling her interview with Whitney Houston "one of the most powerful [Oprah's] ever done." To prove it, Winfrey released a clip from the two-day season premiere interview today, in which a surprisingly noncombative Houston describes the time her mother, singer Cissy Houston, arrived at her house with a court order and threatened her then-husband, Bobby Brown.
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The endless battle that is late night continued this week during the New York Post's interview with Jay Leno. Differentiating himself from the Late Show host, Leno said that he considers himself to be a comedian first while Letterman's "strength was always in broadcasting; he wasn't quite as good in nightclubs." Whether or not Leno's inner comedian will help him attain ratings gold for NBC will be determined September 14. [New York Post]
Ed Westwick, the man behind Chuck Bass' happenin' brood on Gossip Girl, appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last tonight to prove that he and his role are two separate identities. The biggest aid in his thesis was a game staged by Fallon, where the actor spun a wheel of scenarios and exhibited how Chuck Bass would react to each selection. I didn't see Ridiculous Photo Shoot on the wheel, but that could be an actual storyline. Clip after the jump.
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While our man in Cannes had a look at Lars von Trier's incendiary, extraordinary Antichrist, I couldn't help but chase it down for my own look this afternoon as my first film in Toronto. It's all downhill from here, I think; von Trier's tale of anonymous He (TIFF's busiest man Willem Dafoe), She (a fearless, unforgettable Charlotte Gainsbourg) and the bloody dead-end of their love lives up to the gross-out hype promised since spring. And though it's probably a film to which no single review can possibly do justice, those first impressions are a good start. Nine of mine (and some spoilers, sorry) after the jump.
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· Meet Max Ryan, a British actor who's set for wider exposure now that he's been cast as Kim Cattrall's potential love interest in Sex and the City 2. Can't wait to see you naked, Max!
· Toy-based movies might be big business right now, but that hasn't stopped WB and Mattel from parting ways on their planned He-Man feature, Masters of the Universe.
· Saturday Night Live has announced the hosts and musical guests of its next three shows following the Megan Fox season premiere: Ryan Reynolds/Lady Gaga, Drew Barrymore/Regina Spektor, and Gerard Butler/Shakira.
· New Idol judge Ellen Degeneres hasn't yet talked to Paula Abdul -- or Simon Cowell, for that matter -- but she did chew the fat with Ryan Seacrest on his radio show today.
· "I can carry a tune," promises Jennifer Aniston in advance of her upcoming prison musical, The Goree Girls. "It won't be bad." That's great, but Angelina Jolie can sing in Farsi -- perfectly -- while simultaneously playing the theremin and restyling Maddox's quail topknot. Your move, Aniston.
I usually expect a strong whiff of subversion when a project is announced by Michael Stipe and Sandy Stern's Single Cell production arm, so forgive me for waiting for the punchline on this little bit of news: The duo has announced that they'll be making an ensemble romantic comedy that utilizes the entire songbook of Barry Manilow, and that "the idea for the film is [close] in tone to Love Actually." But...one of the characters is a serial killer, right? Right? [Variety]
After doing the action hero thing all summer, Anton Yelchin is back to what he does best: playing the precocious son in indie comedies. The actor's now set to star opposite Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster in Foster's dark comedy The Beaver, reports Variety. Unsupportive of Gibson's cuckoo father (who begins to communicate through a hand puppet), Yelchin exhorts his Foster mother to divorce him. Careful, Anton. There's all sorts of torch singers circling if that happens. [Variety]
For those of you who weren't transfixed by the clueless auditioning on last night's So You Think You Can Dance, you might have tuned in for a little thing called President Obama's Health Care speech. Sure, Obama and Vice President Biden did not enter the joint session of Congress with a Mia Michaels choreographed routine set to Chicago's "All That Jazz," but they did have another kind of show stopper: a heckler.
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Edward Norton will guest-star in a November episode of ABC's mockumentary-style comedy Modern Family, according to EW's Michael Ausiello. On what is already being called the funniest new fall program, Norton will play a band-member whom Julie Bowen's character hires as a surprise for her husband, Phil (Ty Burrell). Norton and Burrell teamed up before for an Off-Broadway run of Lanford Wilson's Burn This and The Incredible Hulk. [Entertainment Weekly]
Following Fox's announcement last night that Ellen DeGeneres would join American Idol as a fourth judge, Paula Abdul's Twitter account was strangely inactive. Abdul did rely on the networking site to deliver her farewell American Idol bombshell, so wouldn't the supportive-to-a-fault woozette click out a quick "Best Wishes Ellen!" or "All you can do is the best you can do!" before returning to her aerobic dance class? No, but she did find time to tweet a lone, self-promotional message, relieving thousands of Paula-fans from their 24-hour suicide watch.
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Tyler Perry's ensemble opus For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf is barreling through the development process, which naturally means you-know-what: Casting rumors! And the typically press-shy Perry was happy to start them while promoting his new film I Can Do Bad All By Myself, name-dropping an 11-woman dream team of Halle Berry, Angela Bassett, Ruby Dee, Cicely Tyson, Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey, Thandie Newton, Kimberly Elise, Beyoncé Knowles, Mariah Carey and Alicia Keys. He reportedly confirmed that six of the actresses had said "yes," but declined specify which six. Keys is in for sure, but I can't be certain about the rest: Berry's got sharks to fight and everybody knows Oprah doesn't do choreopoetry. Suggestions? [AOL Black Voices]
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