Bored of an increasingly played-out Lindsay Lohan, Us Weekly has begun fishing in more cinefile-friendly waters if one of the magazine's current top headlines is any indication. Yep, that's the rarely-spotted Larry Wachowski at right, who'd been growing more reclusive even before Speed Racer (co-directed with his brother Andy) died a flashy, colorful death at the box office.
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It's official: William Morris Agency and Endeavor have agreed to their long-expected merger, combining their offices into a single nuclear superpower to be known as WME Entertainment. WMA boss Jim Wiatt will run the show as chairman, while Ari Emanuel, Patrick Whitesell and Dave Wirtschafter will handle the day-to-day agency operations.
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· Look, rebooted Melrose Place. You're not breaking up with Lisa Rinna. Lisa Rinna's breaking up with you, OK?
· Ever have trouble telling Tracy Morgan and his 30 Rock alter ego apart? NBC's promo department has the same problem with Tina Fey.
· If you're still on the fence about Wolverine's potential similarity to the leaked version online, Fox is promising that each print of the final cut will have one of multiple secret endings. We're hoping for the one where Sabretooth killed Mr. Boddy!
· CBS is pushing the totally-wrong-for-its-network Harper's Island to Saturday, after the murder mystery kept declining in the ratings.
· Dev Patel is dating his Slumdog Millionaire costar Freida Pinto, says Patel's mother, who then offered reporters a special two-for-one offer.
New photos of Megan Fox have emerged from the set of Jonah Hex, the DC Comics adaptation featuring Josh Brolin as the titular 19th-century bounty hunter and Fox as his shapely, pistol-packing love interest Leila. And it appears that, in an amazing feat of Method acting, Fox will mimic her character's two-dimensional roots for a good portion of the film; her apparent removal of several internal organs for this corset proves her dedication to her one-of-a-kind craft. See the full-size (ahem) image after the jump.
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Now that high-heeled catfight drama Obsessed has opened to the tune of almost $30 million, it's time to start thinking franchise. We came up with three so-crazy-they-might-work ways that producers could extend what initially appeared to be a one-shot thriller into a sequelized cash cow. (Warning: spoilers are ahead for people who have never seen a movie before and thus cannot predict every single beat of Obsessed from the logline alone).
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Twilight co-star Nikki Reed has good news and, well, mildly bad news for you today. First the good: She and her older brother are spending more time bonding these days than they have in years. The downside: He's taking his camera everywhere they go, prepping a Twilight-centric documentary about the glorification of celebrities. Even more discouraging: He's actually calling the thing The Glorification of Celebrities. On the nose much, kiddo?
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One time during an interview, I asked Anna Paquin what was happening with Margaret, the star-studded Kenneth Lonergan film in which she plays the lead. Her voice hitched to a pause before responding. "I guess when Kenny is ready to share it with people, that's his call," she said. "He's a brilliant artist, and when he's finished with it, that's when everybody will see it. Until then, honestly, he's one of those people I just trust so implicitly creatively that whatever his process is is just his process."
That was two years ago. And according to John Horn, whose riveting Margaret progress report appeared in Sunday's LAT, the "process" since then has moved from the editing room to the courtroom.
In today's Hollywood Ink ... Universal brings Videodrome into the Blu-ray era ... Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt make it official ... Timothy Olyphant to don a 10-gallon-hat and a badge once again ...
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Everyone knows you can't keep a good man down. Apparently you can't keep Roger Friedman down, either: Less than three weeks after Fox News discharged its resident gossip monster for reviewing the leaked workprint of its sister studio's Wolverine, Friedman is back online, bringing his signature brand of sycophantic, party-crashing terror to his new blog Showbiz411. You know -- like his old Fox411, but with even less accountability.
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Not content merely to wrestle with Ali Larter, a vengeful Beyoncé used this weekend's box office numbers to take on Channing Tatum, Robert Downey Jr., and an entire family of humpback whales. Unsurprisingly, she left all comers in her dust like they were nothing more than Michelle Williams in a pair of malfunctioning high heels. Welcome, then, to the Movieline Weekend Receipts.
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Another Golden Girl has moved on to the Shady Pines in the sky. Bea Arthur died today in L.A. at the age of 86; a family spokesperson said she had cancer. An imposingly tall woman with a husky contra-alto that didn't just nail a sardonic punchline, it would drive it clear through the wall, Arthur first rose to prominence playing Edith Bunker's ultra-liberal cousin Maude Finley on All in the Family.
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Beyoncé-bites-back potboiler Obsessed pulled a surprise coup yesterday, yanking the weave clear off nearest pugilistic competitor Fighting to become the undisputed multiplex champ. It's well on its way towards becoming the top grosser of all time in this late spring slot, when studios typically lay down a light manure coating in preparation for a fertile summer crop. Fighting, meanwhile, held a respectable-if-not-spectacular second with $4,460,000, and DreamWorks' The Soloist pooped out an anemic $3,200,000, which industry watchers are blaming on the a-a-a-a-a-awfully Debbie Downerish subject matter.
1. OBSESSED: $11,100,000 (new)
2. FIGHTING : $4,460,000 (new)
3. 17 AGAIN: $3,850,000 ($32,155,000)
4. THE SOLOIST: $3,200,000 (new)
5. EARTH (2009): $2,900,000 (new)
6. STATE OF PLAY : $2,080,000 ($20,313,000)
7. MONSTERS VS. ALIENS: $2,050,000 ($168,343,000)
8. FAST AND FURIOUS: $1,930,000 ($141,092,000)
9. HANNAH MONTANA THE MOVIE: $1,770,000 ($60,988,000)
10. CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE: $850,000 ($9,968,000 )
- THE INFORMERS: $110,000 (new)
Figures courtesy of Box Office Mojo
· Bioshock, the Gore Verbinski adaptation of the blockbuster videogame, has been shut down by Universal. It was in pre-production and was about to start shooting in L.A. -- for around $160 million. Yeah, not so much. Staffers have been let go, and the project's on hold until Verbinski can figure out a way to bring that number down. We know! He can replace himself with Uwe Boll.
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Typically, we'd count on People magazine to be among the friendliest of the celebrity magazines, but then they had to go and publish this bombshell account of Lindsay Lohan's numerous crimes against Samantha Ronson. Are you ready for this? Take a deep breath, wriggle on an extra pair of leggings (just in case), and prepare yourself for the shock of your life as you take in this pure, unadulterated terribleness chronicled by a source close to Ronson:
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The internet is not too happy with this new one sheet for Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno! "Tame!" declares Nikki Finke. "I'm actually kinda surprised they didn't go for something more outrageous," says a disappointed Peter Sciretta of Slashfilm. So am I, since Bruno promises to be this summer's big, phallic obelisk of movie homoeroticism. In fact, just off the top of my head, I can think of at least five posters from this year that are a little more fruity (and I'm not even including this!):
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