Upon learning their categories would be relegated to the hour before the live Emmy broadcast, then rattled off in a video package as a time-saving measure, outraged TV writers mobilized. They quickly drafted and signed a document called the Declaration of TV Writer Importance, which expressed their strong feelings that they be allowed to enjoy their moment live, with everyone else (and designated an area encompassing the Farmers Market and the WGA building as their sovereign homeland). Today, CBS and TV Academy have conceded, as the Emmys have officially abandoned the time-shifting measures. Score one for the writers -- God's forgotten children no longer! [THR]
The third season of Mad Men is on its way Sunday at 10 p.m., and if you're a regular viewer, then you know you have some questions left over from the spotty, cliffhanger-y second season. Pregnancy! Corporate takeovers! Gays! Of course Movieline would love to hear all of them -- I'll even go first (with spoilers, alas, for any season-two latecomers) after the jump.
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Jews on film. It's a tradition nearly as old as the movies themselves, reaching back as far as the 1920 German expressionist classic The Golem: How He Came Into the World, about an unholy clay Jewenstein terrorizing the citizens of the Prague ghetto. Seven years later the talkies were born, with the story of davening pop superstar Jakie Rabinowitz in The Jazz Singer. But if you look at the history of film, Jew-made movies about Jews are generally few and far between -- certainly in comparison with the number of Jews who had the authority to greenlight them.
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The seaborne schlocktail Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus may have gone straight to DVD in the United States, but a brave British distributor dared to bring the no-budget terror straight to UK theatergoers. OK, well, brave and quixotic, especially judging box-office numbers indicating Mega Shark's fantastically low £433 gross on one screen -- the rough equivalent of a $713 opening in the States. Let this forever put to rest the rumor that Lorenzo Lamas is indeed huge in London. [Guardian]
· No longer satisfied with their product's depiction via loud, oversexed YouTube videos, the folks at Lego will partner with Warner Bros. to develop a live-action/CGI hybrid adaptation of their enduringly popular toy. Screenwriting siblings Dan and Kevin Hageman will contribute the script -- perhaps a semi-autobiographical tale about the childhood battles that would erupt when Dan stomped into Kevin's room yelling "Arrrgh!! Giant!!!", soon wiping out his brother's complex, labor-intensive Lego village in a fit of carnage while Kevin cried and cried and cried and Dan was denied dinner that night. Developing... [THR]
David Mamet sits down with Anne Frank, Ed Helms embraces Intelligence and much more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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· Oksana Grigorieva, the Slavic succubus currently carrying Mel Gibson's love accident, has granted CNN her first interview. Surprisingly, she used the opportunity to plug her album, Beautiful Heartache, for which Mel directed four videos. "They're like dramatic miniature films," she said, "A whirlpool of different, exciting, bright images." I would have gone with "honey-drenched nightmare portraits in clown-faced close-ups," but the whirlpool thing applies too, I guess.
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Kim Masters took the week off from Paula Abdul bluff-calling to recount a more immediately fascinating tale from another front altogether: World War II, where her father served on a Jewish commando squad in the British Army known as X Troop. And his surviving comrades admit they never scalped a Nazi -- nor would they have. "We killed people elegantly, without that sort of thing," said one. "Shocking! I mean--really!" said another. Quentin Tarantino's producer Lawrence Bender, meanwhile, stood firm: "Quentin's not trying to de-humanize or make less of real people that did fight. This is purely out of his imagination." Fair enough, but don't even get the Brits started about an intentionally misspelled title. [The Daily Beast]
"What If G.I. Joe Were Gay?" wondered Newsweek a few days ago. We'll go you one better, Newsweek: What if G.I. Joe's Duke (played by Channing Tatum) was employed as a male stripper at age 18, and Us Weekly finally produced video of his performance to go along with the still frames it had teased earlier? The result might be something like the NSFW clip you'll find after the jump, in which Tatum forgoes his Backstreet Boys moves and baggy clothing to strip down to a G-string, then helpfully frisks himself in front of a live audience. Thanks, Danica!
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· Hey, it's Bridget Fonda at the Inglourious Basterds premiere. Welcome back from your seven-year hiatus, Bridge! Get a babysitter and do a film sometime soon, OK?
· "I'm certainly not the best-looking person on the planet," claims Jon Hamm, "and I would never ever say that."
· "My family!"
· MTV is vacating its iconic Times Square studio, which has languished since the glory days of TRL.
· We told you yesterday about Dane Cook insulting Vanessa Hudgens at the Teen Choice Awards; now, here's the clip. Finally, a terrible Dane Cook joke you'll want to watch!
Behold your first glimpse of the official Twilight line of Barbies -- an important distinction from action figures, in that these aren't intended to be accurate depictions of the franchise's characters, so much as loosely sketched, immaculately outfitted interpretations using doll templates from the Barbieverse. As such, it's something of a happy coincidence that Ken/Edward is the spitting image of Robert/Edward, right down to his spindly legs, piercing yellow gaze and lush crown of hair. Sold separately: The Forks Barbie Vampire Dreamwagon!
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Fans of Pee-wee Herman in the L.A. area, take heart: "The Pee-wee Herman Show," a live floor show hearkening back to the beloved character's earliest days as a revue at The Groundlings Theater, will have a limited run at The Music Box. Miss Yvonne, Mailman Mike, Cowboy Curtis (gasp!) and Jambi the Genie will all be on hand, as well as Pee-wee's talking chair Chairry, Pterri the pterodactyl, robot Conky, Magic Screen, Randy, and "many more." (Reba the Mail Lady: Law & Whatever -- you better be there.) Buy your tickets now, and let's all hope a third Pee-wee feature -- Pee-wee's Big Bran Muffin? -- will spin itself out of all this revisited Pee-wee-mania. [idpr]
Anything remotely noteworthy about the Teen Choice Awards instantly fell to the wayside the moment Kathy Griffin stampeded the red carpet with Levi Johnston, star Left Wing of the Wasilla Mighty Platypuses and irrefutably fertile thorn in Sarah Palin's side, on her arm.
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All Spinal Tap wanted was to pay tribute to the young man who paid tribute to them. And though it worked for a while on the band's recent "Unwigged and Unplugged" tour, that honor won't make the commemorative tour DVD set for release next month. Tough break, but that's apparently what happens when you've got Legos singing about penis size, sex with minors and "not a dry seat in the house."
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It is Quentin Tarantino's most anticipated picture in some time: a photograph he snapped of Brad Pitt with a purple dildo. Sadly, Tarantino's uncharacteristically obtuse framing obscures the scene's full impact, robbing it of the suspense inherent in seeing the cheek of America's Matinee Idol receive a loving caress from a huge, purple sex toy.
Wait, what?
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Indeed, that is the reward Fox plans for viewers Aug. 19, when its two-hour documentary Octomom: The Incredible Unseen Footage arrives on the network. Mike Darnell, the network's reality TV chief, promised revelations upon revelations in Radar Online's video shot in the days immediately following Nadya Suleman's octuplet birth, including her financial woes (though Radar paid her), her parenting difficulties (e.g. finding a sitter when Ann Curry comes calling), and her own folks' shellshocked grandparenthood. "Viewers will react strongly," the executive producer said. "They're going to have an opinion, one way or another." Fox, meanwhile, said it set aside a "six-figure amount" for her kids -- likely an average of about $40,000 per child and an option for Danny Boyle to dramatize their fraught lives for the 2025 Oscar season. Who's in? [EW]
