Is Lars von Trier the Spencer Pratt of Cinema?

At the press conference for his insane Cannes sensation Antichrist, Lars von Trier's tremendous boasts (coupled with his sheer delight in playing the bad boy) reminded us of one very unlikely person: The Hills villain Spencer Pratt. Both men seemingly love to be hated, and each is willing to push his image past the realm of self-parody in the name of promoting his art. We decided to compare the two blowhards to see just how far the eerie similarities go.

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Casey Affleck Soliciting Public's Footage of Joaquin Phoenix Acting Like Assh**e

The world has largely forgotten about Joaquin Phoenix's premature retirement from the acting world to focus on his fledgling hip-hop career, moving on in recent months to more pleasant topics of conversation, like swine flu, Sri Lankan civil war, and Kristin Cavallari's triumphant return to The Hills. Unfortunately, simply ignoring something doesn't always make it go away.
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First New Moon Poster: Who Wants Who?

Summit Entertainment this morning shipped out its first poster for New Moon, revealing a conspicuous shift in its approach to the hotly anticipated Twilight sequel. Gone is the sulky, Photoshopped wolfcake that greeted viewers of Moon's first publicity still, and gone is the youthful charm that so successfully pushed the original film on audiences last fall. There seems to be but one message here: Someone is getting cockblocked. Make of it what you will after the jump.
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MacGruber To Be Blown Up Over And Over Again For Ninety Minutes

· The Peabody Awards ceremony was held last night in New York, where honorees included creators of Lost, Breaking Bad, the Onion News Network, and SNL. On hand to accept for that venerable sketch comedy series was creator Lorne Michaels, who told a reporter that a feature-length MacGruber movie is a definite possibility. Michaels explained, "We're still in discussions. It would have to be in the summer because we are back in production in the fall, but if our schedules allow, then it really should be doable so long as [FIERY EXPLOSION ENGULFS WALDORF-ASTORIA]" MacGruuuBER! [THR]
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Does This Man Have What it Takes to Play Frank Sinatra?

· And no, it's not our mistake. It may be the Telegraph's, though: The newspaper reports that Jamie Foxx -- the reasonably well-known African-American actor who once won an Oscar for playing Ray Charles -- is "in the running" to portray Frank Sinatra in Martin Scorsese's upcoming biopic of the actor/singer. Actually, you know what? He'd still be better than Leonardo DiCaprio. [via The Lost Boy]
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Plaintiff Woody Allen Makes Easiest $5 Million of His Career

As anticlimaxes go, it rivals the most significant of Woody Allen's 40-year-plus film career: The morning that a judge was to hear his case arguing that American Apparel had both violated privacy laws and damaged his reputation with a 2008 billboard campaign, he settled with the racy clothing retailer for $5 million. Still, even if the amount totaled half the damages Allen had originally sued for, it's hard to look down on the biggest opening-day gross of his life.
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Kiefer Sutherland Beats Movieline to the After-Party Joke

We must confess, we were a little worried there for a while about the implications of the Kiefer Sutherland Headbutt -- after all, it's a misdemeanor assault that broke designer Jack McCullough's nose, and the 24 actor is currently on parole. But hey! Looks like we're getting the go-ahead to laugh now, and Sutherland is taking his cues from aggression muse Brooke Shields, who parlayed her role in the incident to a "Look how fun I am!" guest spot on The View.
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First Footage of Heath Ledger's Last Performance in Parnassus

Though Movieline is due to screen Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus in Cannes, the film won't be playing until the very end of the festival. In the meantime, an enterprising soul was kind enough to snip out the Parnassus clip from the Cannes opening night montage, and we present it as an apéritif before the main event.
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5 U.S. Distributors Who Could Take a Chance on Antichrist

Our mannes in Cannes loved it. Variety labeled it a "big fat art-film fart." Roger Ebert called it "the most despairing film I've ever seen." Anne Thompson praised it as "powerful filmmaking." And yet with every subsequent cheer, jeer, hiss and shouting match heard all the way from Cannes, the only thing anyone in America really wants to know about Lars von Trier's new one is: "When can I peer between my fingers to watch Antichrist?"
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Disney Releases Terrifying Image of Jim Carrey in A Christmas Carol

Gah! We repent, we repent! Tiny Tim, you're aces with us now. Bob Cratchit, have these gold doubloons we've been saving! Take them, take anything you want from us, because we have seen the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and it is this frightening CG image of Jim Carrey in the upcoming motion-captured redo of A Christmas Carol.

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Buzz Break: New York's Finest

· Steven Spielberg's son Theo has joined New York as a magazine intern, and is also unexpectedly dishy.

· More famous relations doing things! Actress/Hanks-spouse Rita Wilson has sold a script to Fox 2000.

· While we feel bad that former Survivor winner Ethan Zohn has cancer, we feel worse that his exclusive statements to People -- "This is the ultimate game of Survivor" and "I'm not getting voted out of this one" -- are gnawing at our sympathy juuust a little.

· Director James Gray claims (NSFW!) that Gwyneth Paltrow invited him into her trailer to personally inspect her breasts before shooting a nude scene in Two Lovers.

· Debbie Gibson is ready for that Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus franchise. We're ready for her Oscar-bait love ballad, "Lost in Your (Inky Black) Eyes."

How Many Actors Can You Name in SAG's 'I'm Voting Yes' Video?

After more than a year of negotiations, internecine squabbles and pity parties, Screen Actors Guild leadership will finally issue ballots Tuesday asking members to vote on a new contract. While it's likely to find the simple majority required to pass the deal, the "Vote Yes" crowd isn't taking any chances with their wily enemies. Hence the new video gathering 34 of the contract's most vocal proponents -- if not necessarily it's best known proponents. And because Monday morning is far too important to do actual work, play along for a few minutes and test your recognition skills against your fellow Movieline readers. The video and scoring key are after the jump.
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Peter Berg Will Not Sink Universal's Battleship

· Peter Berg is in talks with Universal to direct Battleship, an adaptation of the popular board game. Screenwriting brothers Jon and Erich Hoeber have been enlisted to write the script, expected to be composed entirely of Dwayne Johnson and enemy commander John Travolta shouting "A-4!", "G-6!", and other tense one-liners between dramatic explosions at sea. [THR]

Dustin Lance Black gets a cast, Marvel gets its Thor, and much more Hollywood Ink after the jump.

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Angels & Demons Fights Off Deadly Trekkiati Cult

It was closer than expected in the end, but America's favorite Pope-rescuing Harvard symbologist still outmuscled the Enterprise crew as the weekend's top box-office draw. And with Angels & Demons' supremacy facing a lethal threat from the homicidal machines and anthropomorphic museum pieces bearing down on Memorial Day, let's savor its short-lived triumph while we can. More after the jump.
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Friday Box Office: Angels in America

Sure, Angels & Demons didn't manage a $28.6 million Friday like The Da Vinci Code did in 2006, but considering the huge hype that release boasted (and the deflated expectations it left in its wake), $16.5 million for Angels ain't all that bad. Meanwhile, Star Trek had an OK hold.

1. ANGELS & DEMONS: $16,550,000 (new)

2. STAR TREK: $11,850,000 ($116,461,000)

3. X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE: $4,270,000 ($140,561,000)

4. GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST: $2,125,000 ($35,327,000)

5. OBSESSED: $1,450,000 ($59,471,000)

6. 17 AGAIN: $955,000 ($55,950,000)

7. NEXT DAY AIR: $695,000 ($6,063,000)

8. THE SOLOIST: $670,000 ($25,772,000)

9. MONSTERS VS. ALIENS: $585,000 ($188,137,000)

10. EARTH: $455,000 ($27,846,000)