When it rains, it pours in Avatarland (Actually, does it rain in Pandora? My guess is that it does, and that each luminescent raindrop is its very own, never-duplicated color) and thus, arriving at nearly the same time as the Avatar trailer, Slashfilm's got six additional stills from the movie. You'll have to head over there for the whole shebang, but we've put two of them after the jump, and one of them has Sigourney Weaver in it. What more reason could you have to click through?
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To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis's landmark album Kind of Blue, the gang at Slate combed through the best and worst uses of the record's smoky, mid-tempo jazz. Among them: Dexter, In the Line of Fire and Pleasantville, the latter of which best adheres to the theory that "the album tends to be used to achieve a particular effect, often showing up when a character is experiencing a transformation." The Runaway Bride, alas, doesn't fare well with "the most obvious, and most obviously wrong, Kind of Blue moment on film." Can't really argue there; don't let Garry Marshall near these songs for Valentine's Day. [Slate]
Jeremy Piven's relentless wrasslin', reality-TVin' Goods press tour continues today at Time Magazine, where the actor sat to answer a handful of reader questions submitted via Internet. And just when it started to look like all-softballs-all-the-time ("It seems that your career has progressed gradually over the years. Did you ever consider giving up acting?"), the readers' proxy delivered a one-two punch from the Piven's mercury-poisoned glory days.
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The pilot for the planned reality show about a reunion quest by Michael Jackson's brothers is reportedly set to air "within the month" on A&E, which has exclusive rights to a season's worth of footage shot before Jackson died in June. And before you blame the network for shameless exploitation, the brothers have apparently agreed to another round of shooting chronicling their grieving period and potential for a post-Michael comeback. Assuming Darryl Phinnessee jumps aboard in their late brother's stead, you have to like their chances. [THR]
· Having noticed the obvious shortage of '60s nostalgia of late, Disney and Robert Zemeckis are teaming for one more retread gift from the Baby Boomers to you: A resplendent 3-D remake of Yellow Submarine complete with merchandising tie-ins, a corresponding Broadway show, another Beatles-influenced Cirque du Soleil production (to complement Love), and downgraded LSD dosages at the door for kids under 13. [Variety]
Yet another musical icon of the same era gets a close-up, Summer helmer Marc Webb finds his next gig, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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· In this clip from The September Issue, watch as Mario Testino ultimately decides that a terrible blond wig detracts from Sienna Miller's ability to sell a garment in her Vogue cover shoot -- a garment that, in this case, appears to be two Hungarian sheepdog puppies stapled to her upper arms. That's why he's a master!
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If it wasn't enough that Lost has already scavenged Deadwood of Kim Dickens, Paula Malcomson, William Sanderson, and Robin Weigert, this latest casting should pretty much tear it. THR is reporting that Deadwood's John Hawkes is joining Lost's final season as scruffy spokesperson "Lennon," though take that with a grain of salt, as Lost producers often like to come up with cover names and alternate character descriptions while casting. Hey, Kings is off the air now -- can we add Ian McShane as the black smoke's dad? [THR]
Brand-new It Girl Carey Mulligan, of the impending An Education, tells the New York Times that she's an unlikely advocate for public transportation in Los Angeles. "I can't drive, so I take the bus," she says. "I stay in Century City, which is centrally located, and there's a brilliant bus that goes straight up Santa Monica Boulevard. The people riding on the bus are unbelievable. Completely insane. I quite like it. When you have three meetings a day, it's quite pleasant to take the bus from place to place." [NYT via Hollywood Elsewhere]
If you chose all of the above, congrats: The Halcyon Company, the troubled production upstart that owns the rights to the Terminator franchise and that sought bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, reportedly owes millions to lawyers, other producers and above-the-line talent associated with the blockbuster series.
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With Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen now having surpassed $800 million in global box office, Michael Bay has finally moved on the intimate labor of love he promised the world months ago. And judging by the first behind-the-scenes images from the set, no one can really deny he's returned to basics: Just one director, his tiny crew, and a bevy of semi-naked Victoria's Secret models stranded in the desert. More photos after the jump.
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· Quick, name that Michael Cera movie! Why, it's a still from his upcoming TIFF entry Youth in Revolt. At this point, I will pay a costume designer to slap a leather jacket and earrings on Cera. Something. Anything.
· The third episode of Mad Men was accidentally released into the wild via iTunes.
· Oh hey, they're doing a Dirty Dancing remake. Because Havana Nights went so well?
· "Maybe it has also exempted the subject World War times listed as Tap Dance," Brad Pitt told a German magazine. OK, we admit it: Our German translation skills may not be the best.
· Photoshop used for good, not evil: A gallery of dogs sniffing celebrities.
I think if there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that the naked pictures of Vanessa Hudgens and Twilight actress Ashley Greene, coupled with the Eric Dane sex tape featuring his wife with a woman named Kari Ann Peniche, have ruined all the social progress accrued by women over the last fifty years. Sorry, Gloria Steinem: Now that we've seen nude cell phone pictures of the girl who played Alice in Twilight, you will have to bake pies all day, for men.
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Perhaps you've heard that Vegas has fallen upon hard times, and is willing to do whatever it takes to entice visitors back to their oasis of sin. Caesars Palace (warning: Caesar never actually stayed or lived there) has now gone one further from simply slashing rates, instead putting together the Ultimate Hangover Package. So what do you get? A two-night stay @ $200 per night gets you a Double Bay suite, a $50 credit at the Serendipity 3 restaurant, two VIP passes to Pure Nightclub and two passes and a $50 bar credit to the Garden of the Gods pool, where you can piece together what might have happened to your tooth the night before. Not a bad deal! (Babies, tigers, and Holocaust rings sold separately.) [Caesars Palace via Caroline on Crack]
After hitting reload roughly 1,842,366 times on Monday to secure tickets to Avatar Day through Fox's lugubrious website, you can imagine the excitement as my initial confirmation email was, hours later, followed by roughly 1,842,366 more. It came as no surprise to me, then, that Fox called a do-over and sent out random emails today (some as early as 3am) scuttling the Monday confirmations and asking moviegoers to pick again. So, is the site fixed? Haha, no.
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Television news is the way it is today -- or, at least the way it was, before it was crowded out by satire and the carnival atmosphere of cable bloviating -- because of Don Hewitt. The newsman died today at 86 after a long career that included production of the Nixon/Kennedy debates for television, behind-the-scenes direction of Walter Cronkite and Edgar R. Murrow, the pioneering of methods that would lead to the TelePrompTer, and the creation of 60 Minutes. I know you're taking a moment to appreciate all those achievements while simultaneously wondering, "Which one was he in The Insider?" so let me answer that, too.
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