What a treat! For the authors of our five best comments this week, we've got the prize any shrill romcom lead would kill for: a fantasy trip to gorgeous Sacramento, Hollywood's new Toronto! It's the city so nice, our governor tries to spend as little time there as possible, and now it's the location of your newest romantic getaway. So who won?
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Any interest in buying a beautiful, half-finished garment with the faint scent of mothballs and broken dreams? You're in luck, as SeenON! is auctioning off every Project Runway dress from this season. You, too, can own treasures like Ra'mon's winning dress from last night for the low, low price of "No Bids Yet." Actually, the only dresses that really seem to be moving are the bad ones -- so far, the biggest seller is Ari's elimination-triggering frock from Episode 1, bought for $777.00 by Ari's mom, one of the aliens from Avatar. [SeenON!]
Trekkers in Atlanta tingled in brand new ways when William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy reunited for the city's annual Dragon-Con convention earlier today. Shatner and Nimoy, a Statler-and-Waldorfian duo who claim they were once just as hot as Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, fielded questions and held a spirited conversation with each other that started with Nimoy's innocent query, "Seen any good movies lately?" The 2,000 attendees laughed, because Shatner wasn't in it and really, really wanted to be. Key moments from the duo after the jump.
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Britain's Got Talent winner, Susan Boyle has already topped Amazon charts with her debut album I Dreamed A Dream, just days after the record's November 24 release date was announced. The news is a particularly harsh blow to Whitney Houston, whose comeback album was released last week and celebrated with a widely anticipated GMA performance. The Kathy Geiss of the UK set celebrated the news "with a shopping trip to Harrods, where she bought several dresses," according to her rep. [People]
Back when I was growing up in Sacramento, California, it was always a big deal when a Hollywood production would come to town. Clint Eastwood, John Travolta, whoever... it was automatic front-page news, kind of an in-between moment for a growing city that always liked to think of itself as more sophisticated than it was. That introduction to Kevin Spacey in American Beauty -- when Lester Burnham soared over an anonymous, sprawling suburb? That was the tony, tree-shrouded enclave of Fair Oaks. We won Oscars! It was glorious.
And then Sacramento got its close-up. This summer alone, both The Ugly Truth and All About Steve have made my hometown the epicenter of romcom temblors better known for their shrill unlikability than anything resembling pride of place. And it could get worse before it gets better. So here is my intervention: Hollywood, will you please, please leave my fair city alone already?
· Michael Ausiello's got the final iteration of House's "Snakes on a Cane" poster campaign.
· More promos! ABC is promoting FlashForward using innovative magazine ads that will play video if you hold the pages up to your webcam. OK, but will they take your Facebook picture if you hold them up to a bathroom mirror?
· Kathy Griffin got the jump on Halloween by dressing up as Kate Gosselin (complete with tummy-tucked bikini body) for Jimmy Kimmel.
· What's next for Mike Judge after Extract? A big movie set during the Napoleonic Wars, of course.
· Kevin Smith is starting to hint that he and Bruce Willis didn't get along on the set of their next movie, A Couple of Dicks. Perhaps they were simply going method?
I'll be honest: I've spent all morning in a state of suspense as the All About Steve reviews rolled in, wondering just which critic would be the first to stake out a contrarian position on what's shaping up to be the year's most reviled film. Still, no one seemed willing to take a stand, and the All About Steve Tomatometer remained at a stunning 0% for hours upon hours (of all the movies this year that defiantly chose not to screen for critics, this is the one they send out to be slaughtered?). But ho! What is this new thing on the horizon? Could it be? Has someone actually given the film a positive review? Who is it, and what did they say?
While Episode Three of Mad Men had plenty of musical moments to remember -- from concertina recitals to blackfaced showstoppers to baked a cappella-offs -- its second episode had just one. In a darkened boardroom, we were sent via Sterling Cooper WABAC Machine to 1963 for Ann-Margret's uncharacteristically shrill performance of the title song to Bye, Bye Birdie, upon which they were to base their campaign for Patio diet cola. Against a blue backdrop, the Swedish-born sex kitten and infrequent Flintstones guest star pined for the Broadway-musicalized version of Elvis, (who she'd ironically be blue-balling in Viva Las Vegas the very next year), along the way earning the respect of deeply closeted Charles Strouse fan Sal Romano, and a slap from Peggy Olson, who observes, "Let's assume we can get a girl who can match Ann-Margret's ability to be 25 and act 14."
Ann-Margret was watching:
"My daughter-in-law called and said: 'Did you know that you're on 'Mad Men'?" says the 68-year-old actress, who will be honoured in Toronto next week by the charitable organization Best Buddies Canada.
After yesterday's critical lambasting, Fox needs all the help it can get powering All About Steve off its Labor Day launching pad and into the hearts and minds of moviegoers across America. And since it's a three-day weekend and you won't have to face your computer for at least 72 hours when you leave today, what better solidarity can we all show than to upload the studio's stylish, attention-grabbing All About Steve desktop wallpaper?
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While I wouldn't call myself a fan of the unsightly, derivative new poster for Nicolas Cage and Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, let's hand it to the budget marketers at Millennium Films and First Look Studios for exploiting every last asset they have. To wit: Who's up for Ghost Rider 2? A full-size comparison of both films' posters follows the jump.
A Sydney gossip columnist who dared to call Russell Crowe out for his smoking and diet habits wound up challenged recently to a grueling bicycle trek with the angry star. One wipeout and a butt-numbing 20 kilometers later, the pair had cultivated a much healthier mutual understanding: "Better than Baz Luhrmann," Crowe told her. "You're twice the man Baz is." [Daily Telegraph]
· Warner Bros. didn't need a Dark Knight to help repeat last year's summer box-office championship -- but it did need an unlikely Hangover. Along with boosts from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the modest New Liners Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and The Time-Traveler's Wife, the studio should come in around $970 million domestically by Monday. Paramount trails with about $830 million, and poor Universal pulled up lame at the quarter-mile mark and will end the race in last place with barely $353 million. [THR]
Sharon Stone wins an award, a murderer wins the lottery, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
Welcome back to Movieline Attractions, your regular guide to everything new, noteworthy and potentially unfit for human consumption at the movies. This week, consider making plans anywhere but the multiplex unless you have some end-of-summer catching up to do -- and even then, consider holding your breath when walking by a few of the stinkier auditoriums. A full (if brief) holiday rundown is after the jump.
Our sister site, Deadline | Hollywood, has finally finished sprucing itself up and dropped the "Daily" from its name. The content is still the same, but the layout and navigation of the site makes a whole lot more sense... there are article pages (no more endless scrolling through somewhat tedious press releases) and even threaded comments. Well done, Nikki.
Take a look for yourself: Deadline Hollywood
· The "why" of Zach Galifianakis wearing a robe on a Manhattan street yesterday, miles from the nearest movie set, isn't so much important as the "how." And the how is positively fetching! Watch every starry-eyed alterna-comedy nerd to ever set foot in a UCB Theater to be rocking that look this weekend.
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