· Empire previewed their special Avatar issue online today, which they call "the movie event of the decade," and which features this never-before-seen image of Sam Worthington failing to point out massive plot holes to his director, like the fact that you can't actually implant someone's soul into a ten-foot-tall blue cat-eyed thing.
MTV has this exclusive image of Peter Jackson's version of Heaven from the upcoming The Lovely Bones. Here's what we've gathered after staring at it for some time:
Any place with as rich a sense of history, pride and propriety as Pennsylvania has about its native sons should be probably be ashamed of a development like this, but there you have it: M. Night Shyamalan, perhaps the most important filmmaker to emerge from the Keystone State since Andy Warhol high-tailed it out of Pittsburgh, will make his next movie in Canada. A nation mourns. But enough about Canada.
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You have Sam Worthington's sympathy if you had problems with Terminator: Salvation -- so did he. "I can nitpick with the best of them, man, and go down the list on IMDB where they found holes in it and go, 'You are fucking right! If there was a big 10 ton robot coming outside that gas station, surely we would fuckin' hear it!'" the actor told reporters from the set of Clash of the Titans. "And I missed that! So now I'm going to be a bit fuckin' better when I'm going through my scripts because now I feel like an idiot for not turning to McG [and saying something]." [CHUD]
· ABC broke out the swords, shields, and medieval Restylane for its brand-new poster advertising the sixth season of Desperate Housewives. Click the pic for full-size.
· The Playlist's got a script review of Alexander Payne's ambitious (and for now, back-burnered) comedy Downsizing.
· Rachelle Lefevre might not want to check out this link to set photos that show Bryce Dallas Howard playing Victoria in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
· A&E has confirmed that it's pressing ahead with plans to film a reality series about Michael Jackson's brothers coping with the singer's death.
· Congratulations, Carey Mulligan: You've made it into your very first people.com headline, and all it took was an afternoon canoodle with Shia LaBeouf.
After a well-received launch at Cannes, Jane Campion's Bright Star is hoping to woo an unconventional audience of art house filmgoers and swoon-prone teenage girls when it when it arrives in theaters next month. Movieline is pleased to premiere three exclusive images from the film, which stars Ben Whishaw (above) and Abbie Cornish.
How hadn't it come to this before? A new reality show called Adopted will follow Pauly Shore as he adopts an African baby. The show's official website dubs it a mockumentary film (that, perhaps, will be broken down into installments for distribution -- unless there's just faulty Post reportage). But the baby's adoption is only the beginning! The fresh-procured child learns its first steps at grandmother Mitzi's The Comedy Store in Hollywood, where Dom Irrera jokingly blows a wad of cigar smoke in its face and a fast-talking, old-school agent explains to it that they "already have a black comic" for that night. You've gotta learn the ropes, kid! You can read more about this in Pauly's harrowing upcoming memoir: Hollywood: A Bio-Dome of Prejudice. [NY Post]
Paula Abdul is slated to host VH1's first Divas Live special since 2004, set to air September 17. The ousted American Idol judge and Grammy-winning Vibeologist will introduce a klatch of liberally defined "divas," including Miley Cyrus, Jordin Sparks, Leona Lewis, Kelly Clarkson, and Adele. Apparently "diva" means "any female singer" now, so I expect that La Toya Jackson and Victoria Beckham will round up their press junkets here with a quick medley of "Shame" (featuring a surprise appearance from Evelyn "Champagne" King!) and "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves" (featuring a still-onstage Evelyn "Champagne" King).
Whitney Houston: born in Newark into soul-diva royalty as the cousin of Dionne Warwick and goddaughter of Aretha Franklin on August 9th, 1963, hand-picked by the Ear of God himself Clive Davis while performing with mother Cissy Houston at a small New York nightclub, guided to superstardom with a self-titled debut in 1985 that would define that decade's chart-topping R&B crossover sound, married to onetime industry heavyweight turned pop culture joke Bobby Brown, starred in a number of successful feature films in the 1990s that produced even more successful soundtracks, led astray in the 2000s by rumors of substance abuse, missed concert appearances, reality show doodie-bubble-digging, airport drug arrests, shockingly protrusive collar bones at Michael Jackson tribute concerts, derisive comments made about certain synthetic street drugs that led to angry outcries from the American Association of Crack Manufacturers, divorces, lawsuits, hells to the no...you know the one.
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Variety yesterday pointed readers to Hollywood's box-office haul for summer 2009, which is nearing an all-time record with $3.99 billion in grosses through Sunday. That's a 5 percent jump over 2008 -- not as pure a boom as it seems at a glimpse, considering fake-IMAX inflation and 3-D ticket surcharges, but a respectable recession-era turnout nevertheless. Especially considering some of the historic flops we've seen rolling out since May.
In the latest mishap to befall Jessica Biel's slow climb to Serious Actress, the software security providers at McAfee have placed her first among the most dangerous celebrities on the Internet. Not that she's hacking your Facebook account or reading your e-mail (at least not that anyone can prove), but rather unwittingly lending her name to some of the Web's most malicious computer wonks.
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An anonymous bidder on Monday won an eBay auction for the plot directly above Marilyn Monroe's at Westwood Village Memorial Park, nabbing the spot from its previous inhabitant's widow for $4.6 million. Richard Poncher's remains had been resting there since 1986, when he fulfilled his dying wish of being laid to rest "on top of Marilyn"; he allegedly threatened at the time to haunt his widow forever if she relocated him. But! Reports note that the mortgage on her Beverly Hills mansion is now paid off, so some curses may just be worth it. [BBC]
· Elizabeth Banks is winding down talks to appear opposite Russell Crowe in The Next Three Days, writer-director Paul Haggis's adaptation of the French film Pour Elle. As noted here previously, Crowe plays a man who goes to extremes to bounce his wrongly accused (maybe?) wife from jail, and why not? Someone's got to stay home and watch the kids if he can't take them with him to the pub. [Variety]
Hancock 2 moves closer to flight, Justin Theroux gets kidnappy, and much more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
· While we're altogether preoccupied with the strange similarities between Avatar and Delgo, Best Week Ever noticed that happy Na'vi looks exactly like Robert Pattinson.
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MySpace today debuted the first single from Karen O's album of original songs for Where the Wild Things Are. "All is Love" is just about the twee-pop bonanza you might have predicted from early looks at the film, with none of their anthemic Arcade Fire thump and all of their honey-hued innocence and optimism. Whether you choose to embrace or reject the vocalist's softer side will hinge primarily on your stomach for actual lyrics like "L-O / V-E / It's a / mystery." But don't knock it! A year ago, when Wild Things was supposed to come out, that was a state-of-the-art rhyme. [MySpace]
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