Once your premium cable series has exhausted human-trafficking plotlines, auto-erotic asphyxiation jokes and jerk sock monologues, you might as well buckle up for several months of agonizing brainstorming sessions. Just ask Jenji Kohan & Co., who were faced with this challenge when dreaming up the fifth season of Weeds, which concluded last night. Miraculously, Kohan's writers successfully ransacked their unconscious (or corrupt plot generator) so that Nancy Botwin's camp could endure the strangest, most morally bankrupt season yet. In honor of this accomplishment, we offer you the nine most bizarre Weeds scenes from season five.
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It's not Disney chief Bob Iger, Marvel Studios boss David Maisel, or any other name you've heard to date, according to Kim Masters. Instead, tip your cap to Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, the 66-year-old Marvel CEO who plucked the comics brand from bankruptcy in 1998 and will pocket as much as $1.5 billion from its sale to Disney. The best part? Perlmutter's a recluse who doesn't even like comic books and who showed up to Iron Man's premiere in glasses and a fake mustache. Someone make a movie about this guy, already. [The Daily Beast]
Today's Variety story about the Fantastic Four reboot reminded me of reports that James Vanderbilt, who wrote the first draft of the upcoming, cast-reuniting Spider-Man 4, is scripting Spider-Man 5 and 6 to not only link together but to provide a reboot point for new actors and a new director if necessary. I can't imagine Sam Raimi would come back for Spidey 5 as he's supposed to make World of Warcraft next (then again, I was surprised by his virtually unprecedented decision to helm all four of the Spidey pictures thus far), but should Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst? Let's consider their options.
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The two Bens' bodies haven't even cooled yet after last month's At the Movies massacre, but Disney has wasted no time reinvigorating its brand with new hosts A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips. And by "reinvigorating," I basically mean "putting two ink-stained schlubs through a series of glamourpuss motions just this side of a Michael Bay lingerie ad." See the sultry-ish video after the jump.
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Whatever speeches or highlights the CW might have botched in Sunday's broadcast of the Daytime Emmys, the network can take this not-so-hearty consolation: Nobody was watching. OK, so that's an exaggeration, but only by half (literally); ratings were down 50 percent from last year's awardscast on ABC, pulling in 2.3 million viewers and a 0.6 rating/2 share among adults 18-49. But! It was the CW's biggest Sunday in more than two years, and Tyra Banks did make out with her trophy, so I think this is officially what you'd call "something to build on." [THR]
Ben Stiller has a few regrets. So does Jerry Stahl, the writer and ex-junkie Stiller portrayed in Permanent Midnight, and with whom Stiller attempted to adapt the late Budd Schulberg's seminal Hollywood novel What Makes Sammy Run? for the screen over a decade ago. Schulberg's death last month prompted the duo to sit down this week for a bittersweet, self-effacing mock interview with themselves -- a must-read rumination on failure, regrets and the town's enduring quantities of "unfinished business."
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· Not to be outdone by Disney's $4 billion acquisition of Marvel, Fox announced Monday it would kick-start a slate of new films based on the comics giant's Fantastic Four series. Screenwriter/producer Akiva Goldsman is in charge of rebooting the antiquated 2005 original, which also spawned 2007's Rise of the Silver Surfer. Beyond that, Fox also reminded Disney that it owns indefinite rights to the X-Men franchise and all of its respective origin stories -- which still doesn't rule out the prospect of those hotly in-demand (at least around these parts) Mouse gloves with Wolverine claws. Don't make us wait. [Variety]
Teen Wolf inches closer to its own reboot, The L Word tries again with real lesbians, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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· Pictured, eighth-most embarrassing Republican Tom DeLay works on his foxtrot for the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars, a season sure to be visited by controversy when the former House Majority Leader is brought up on charges of accepting expensive gifts of Gucci cologne and silk handkerchiefs from judge Bruno Tonioli by the House Committee on Reality Show Standards of Official Conduct. [via JoshuaBearman]
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Whatever you may think of AMPAS's decision to expand the number of Best Picture nominees to ten, it's hard to deny it's brought a jolt of excitement to Oscar jockeying. Unfortunately, it's also come with a few murky problems attached, including the realization that with such a vast number of nominees, the Best Picture winner could potentially be chosen by less than 20% of voters.
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In the weeks since Paula Abdul tweet-dumped American Idol, she agreed to host VH1's Divas Live and scored a recurring gig as Judge Paula Abdul (seriously) on Lifetime's Drop Dead Diva, but our dreams for an all-Paula network program went unanswered. Until last night, when the former Idol judge confirmed another kind of Abdul-spectacular: her very own Las Vegas variety show! Abdul's hazy details after the jump!
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· The NYT has stills and a report from the upcoming John Cameron Mitchell film Rabbit Hole, starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart. Mitchell is a "want to love but don't" filmmaker for me, but at least Kidman invokes Birth about eight thousand times when discussing the new movie.
· Seth Rogen's The Green Hornet has been pushed back five months to December 2010.
· New Moon wolfcake Alex Meraz decided that to better play his role, he would forego sleep, grab Kristen Stewart by the throat, and scream at her during their scenes. Alex, all you need to do is your ab workouts. Relax.
· Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen both wore tulle animal ears to a party in Tokyo this weekend. "Furry" websites are all atwitter!
· Demi Moore has never had plastic surgery, she tells Marie Claire. If she can forget we all saw Striptease, then so can I.
Chris Brown's upcoming appearance on Larry King Live, wherein he addresses how he "can't remember" assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna, is previewed in a new clip from CNN. The full interview airs Wednesday, with Chris sitting alongside his mother Joyce Hawkins and his attorney Mark Geragos. King's cut-'em-to-the-bone line of questioning will include bits about Brown's five-year parole, how Brown is still in love with Rihanna (though parole prevents him from seeing her for five years), his new goal of proving he is a role model, and coy queries about his spiffy sweater. The leaked quotes and preview video are just as heroic.
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In June, screenwriter Derek Haas established Popcorn Fiction, a website for pulpy short stories, and now Haas and writing partner Michael Brandt have sold one to Hollywood. Shake, a thriller about a Parkinson's-afflicted FBI agent hunting down a killer, has been acquired by Jerry Bruckheimer for seven figures. We'd just like to note that Brandt & Haas's One-Page Screenplay, Messy Life, is still available! I see Zac Efron as teen Braden.
Yesterday evening, NBC announced that they will rebrand their lagging network as "more colorful." Without giving their peacock a magenta feather or easing him of that five night-a-week Jay Leno Show booking though, the network's prognosis still seems grim. Even with the coincidentally timed introduction of a new, twice-president-related correspondent to the network's morning show. Sure, Jenna Bush Hager's first Today report in September might yield a few headlines, but a deal to provide only one non-politics story a month probably won't give NBC much of that desired rosy glow.
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Movieline is proud to present a trio of never-before-seen images from MGM's Kelsey Grammerific reimagining of Alan Parker's 1980 musical, Fame. Set in the highly competitive training grounds of the New York City High School of Performing Arts, Fame follows a class of multi-talented showbiz hopefuls as they fling their sweat-drenched legwarmers through torturous jazz-ballet rehearsals, strain to recall their lines through angsty readings from 16 Stage Monologues for Men, and weather the spittle-flecked invective of Mr. Shorofsky as he wails, "No! No! No! Hold the bow like this! Not like this! This isn't your dick you're holding! It's a violin bow! Hold it with respect!"* The exclusive photos are after the jump.
*Scene may not actually appear in 2009 remake.
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