Hookers Out, Museum In at Bruce Lee's Hong Kong Home

Bruce Lee died 36 years ago today, the victim of brain swelling/an averse cannabis reaction/a family curse or one of any number of other rumored fates that doomed him at the young age of 32. (My favorite is the Hong Kong coroner's official "death by misadventure" announcement, a cause of death I'm sad to see fell out of fashion before David Carradine's more genuinely adventurous demise, but I digress.) Local officials jumped on the occasion, with the owner of Lee's former home -- which has since become a no-tell motel with hourly rates -- vowing to establish a Lee museum on the premises. And he's got $13,000 for anyone who can come up with the best design.
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Frank McCourt Dead at 78

Frank McCourt, the Irish immigrant-turned-teacher-turned-author whose Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela's Ashes was adapted to the screen in 2000, died Sunday in New York of complications from metastatic melanoma. He was 78. In development when he passed away: Teacher Man, his third autobiographical effort, which Gerard Butler's Evil Twins shingle optioned last year as a potential starring vehicle for the actor. The story covers McCourt's 30 years as a high-school writing instructor in New York. Depending on The Ugly Truth's opening this weekend, look for the project to acquire new momentum with Butler in the months ahead. [NYT]

Sony Pledging $50 Million+ For Michael Jackson Rehearsal Footage?

· Sony may soon have a new entry to add to its holiday 2009 movie calendar, having emerged as the likely buyer of 80 hours' worth of Michael Jackson rehearsal footage from his concert promoters at AEG. Bidding reportedly began at $50 million -- roughly $10,000 per minute -- and climbed from there, with director Kenny Ortega already assembling scenes from Jackson's final comeback preparations last month. Among them: Three interstitial videos that would have broken up the London performances, including "an alternative version" of Thriller. Next up for AEG: Offloading TV and video rights for the MJ tribute/birthday concert on Aug. 29. (Sorry! Darryl Phinnessee sold separately.) [DHD, BFDealMemo]

Voltron returns, Mischa Barton takes another week off, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.

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Boffus Boxoffum!

Bruno was so July 11th. This weekend was all about taking refuge from sweltering summer temperatures with a bucket of popcorn and Hermione's (technically legal) doability. How much did Harry & Co. manage to conjure up after its five-day opening? Clickus Continuum to find out!

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Friday Box Office: Half-Blood Bank

It wouldn't require much magic to foresee Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince crossing the $100 million mark by late Friday, though the boy wizard may need a whole new spell to regain the momentum that can boost the franchise's sixth entry to the $170 million five-day most of Hollywood forecast for it. Holdovers Ice Age 3 and Transformers 2 kept a safe distance in second and third place respectively, but pity poor Bruno, which is on track for a 70-percent drop from its number-one opening last week. Blame the Irish, I suppose.

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE: $26,830,000 ($107,017,000)

ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS: $5,400,000 ($139,705,000)

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN: $4,175,000 ($354,292,000)

BRUNO: $2,883,000 ($44,098,000)

THE PROPOSAL: $2,750,000 ($122,544,000)

THE HANGOVER: $2,505,000 ($230,072,000)

PUBLIC ENEMIES: $2,323,000 ($74,214,000)

I LOVE YOU BETH COOPER: $1,000,000 ($8,596,000)

UP: $970,000 ($277,381,000)

MY SISTER'S KEEPER: $900,000 ($39,579,000)

Dark Secrets Revealed!

Another week down at Movieline, where we sought to resolve troubles afflicting creatures big and small from lands far and wide. I'm pretty sure we got most of them taken care of -- Mischa, I promise we'll get to you next week. Reminisce with us after the jump.

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Q. What Has Robert DeNiro, Michelle Rodriguez & Jonah Hill and is Red All Over?

· A. Robert Rodriguez's Machete! Michelle Rodriguez, Jonah Hill (the real Jonah Hill) and Robert DeNiro are the first three stars to join Mexi-vigilante Danny Trejo in the feature-length version of the Grindhouse trailer.
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Abdul-less Idol?

While Season 8's winners are on the road and sharing their favorite movie scenes with us, and the next round of cattle-calls has already begun, the fate of Paula Abdul on the next season of American Idol is up in the air, and not looking good. Her manager told the LA Times that FremantleMedia and 19 Entertainment have yet to produce even a draft of a contract: "Very sadly, it does not appear that she's going to be back on 'Idol.' ... I find it kind of unconscionable and certainly rude and disrespectful..." [LA Times]

Our Commenters of the Week Win a Celebrity Tattoo Removal!

Our Commenters of the Week win a truly Godlike power: the ability to zap a tattoo off of any celebrity, without the need for pesky, ineffective body makeup! Will you choose Megan Fox's forearm tattoo of Marilyn Monroe, Mark Wahlberg's Bob Marley shoulder, Cam Gigandet's pelvic ridge flourishes, or something else altogether? First, let's see who has the privilege of choosing!
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Buzz Break: Aussie Rules

· Congratulations to Xavier Samuel, the unknown Australian actor who reps the first piece of casting in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (he'll be playing new vampire Riley). I have actually seen something he was in: a ridiculously homoerotic Australian surf film called Newcastle, where Samuel is gay and naked. Add it to your Netflix, Stephenie Meyer!

· Pixar head John Lasseter attempted a proof-of-concept demo of Where the Wild Things Are back in 1983, using vector maps. The results were pretty damn astonishing.

· Somehow, Kathy Griffin was an extra during the infamous Michael Jackson Pepsi commercial that ended in disaster.

· Upon reading the Us headline "Raven-Symone's Disney Costar Calls Her a 'Heifer,'" one might instinctively think, "Shame on you, Anneliese van der Pol!" But no, it was Debbie Allen. Yikes.

· Red alert! The Chenbot is sentient!

Guess the Plot Of Todd Phillips' Top-Secret Staycation!

There's perhaps nothing a harried studio executive loves more than a bankable producer striding into his office, dispensing of the day's obligatory small talk, and beginning a pitch with a one-word title that sums up the entire concept in a tidy, possibility-evoking package. Scripts, after all, are like so thick, and the coverage on those scripts is, um, totally boring. But a sexily evocative one-word title, in its utterly efficient, almost magical simplicity, can activate a Gladwellian "blink" response in the decision-making center of the executive's brain, rendering the rest of the meeting a struggle to ignore the blinding green light that's suddenly strobing in his field of vision and suppress the urge to yelp, "Sold!" before the actual pitch is complete.
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Sundance Labs Filmmaker Elgin James Indicted By FBI for Extortion

When I interviewed Elgin James a few weeks ago, his personal narrative was so compelling that it's no surprise Hollywood wanted to option it. A former Boston gang leader who stole from drug dealers to give to straight-edge causes, James had cleaned up his act and moved out west to become a filmmaker, and after seeing two of his scripts accepted into the Sundance Labs, he was preparing to go into production on one of them (Goodnight Moon, starring Alia Shawkat and Juno Temple) in just a few months. It was a striking trajectory, though as James told me then, "The criminal lifestyle is more honest, maybe, then what I found in Hollywood." Still, it seems that former lifestyle may have caught up with him.

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Ed Helms Inches Ever Closer to Leading Man-dom

· Ed Helms will follow his breakout role in The Hangover with the lead in Cedar Rapids, an Alexander Payne-produced, Miguel Arteta-directed comedy about a mopey insurance agent who travels to an industry convention in an attempt to save his colleagues' jobs. Think of it like a metaphor for The Office, with the increasingly threatened Steve Carell and John Krasinski nudging their powerful co-star behind the scenes to maybe "maybe talk to Ben" about a salary boost for season seven. Strength in numbers, etc. [Variety]

Avatar trickles out in Hollywood, John Goodman joins the CIA and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.

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Kristin Cavallari Unsure of How The Hills Will Affect Her Craft

While promoting her new, straight-to-DVD film, Van Wilder: Freshman Year, Kristin Cavallari has shared everything from how ten fast-food related pounds practically destroyed Van Wilder's lingerie scene to her theory on love at first sight ("I can always tell if I get butterflies"). But one issue kept popping up in her interviews: how her ironclad two-season contract for MTV's The Hills would affect her acting career.

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Competition Flees in Terror From Fearsome Boy Wizard

Welcome back to Movieline Attractions, your regular guide everything new, noteworthy and wand-wielding at the movies. This week, let's just keep it short: You're going to commit enough time watching the latest Harry Potter adventure without having to read ad nauseum about its looming box-office supremacy. Though there are alternatives, believe it or not.

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