After concerning millions of fans by checking himself into Providence Saint Joseph's Medical Center yesterday -- resulting in a rare cancellation of a taping -- it turns out generously bejawed Tonight Show host Jay Leno was suffering from "an apparent case of dehydration." It's an innocuous diagnosis that nevertheless sits atop most Hollywood executives' Code Red Ailments lists, just above cowpox and inoperable brain cancer, as the dreaded d-word almost inevitably means your starlet has spent the last 76 hours hanging from a pair of gravity boots in a L'ermitage suite as the various members of an eclectic folk-punk outfit feed her nostrils alternating rounds of Amaretto Red Bulls and Bolivian marching powder through the same bendable drinking straw. In Leno's case, however, it just meant he was dehydrated.
· Jay Leno Released from Hospital [People]
Most actors arrive at the Tribeca Film Festival attempting to sell their films. Natalie Portman arrived today to sell her Web site. She visited the Apple Store SoHo with Christine Aylward, her partner in the new behind-the-scenes filmmaking site MakingOf.com. Featuring interviews with everyone from Oscar-winning filmmakers (Ron Howard, Billy Bob Thornton) to composers, cinematographers and other below-the-line craftspeople, MakingOf is Portman and Aylward's attempt to level the informational (and, eventually, communal) playing field for aspiring film professionals. Like if you ever wanted audition tips from Jason Bateman, followed by a casting director's headshot suggestions? They're on it.
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In Backlash, Susan Faludi argues that Fatal Attraction -- the gold standard of a certain kind of Hollywood thriller in which a deranged woman invades the life of a happily married couple to reap violent destruction upon their lives -- was not just an anti-feminist film, but was rather crafted with the express purpose of delivering an anti-feminist message. She's probably right, but I loved it anyway, and will likely sit through any domestic intrusion movie (ooh -- great title. Domestic Intrusion, starring Halle Berry and Kiefer Sutherland) so long as there's at least one decent wife-on-murderous-slut catfight in its third act. Yesterday, we wondered what we might expect from the latest addition to the canon: Obsessed. In its honor, then, we premiere our slightly truncated spin on the classic top ten, The Movieline Nine...Crazy White Bitch Edition.
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· Susan Boyle continues to flagrantly ignore the public's concern for her marketable dowdiness welfare, instead upgrading her brows, wardrobe, and now hair. YOU ARROGANT MONSTER! WE MADE YOU!
· All the more reason to avoid Billy Bush on the red carpet: he's got mono.
· Up against an original episode of Private Practice for the first time, NBC's next big hope Southland (which kinda wasn't as good last night, amirite?) dipped slightly in the ratings.
· Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Audited? gets its answer: his stalker worked for the government.
· And finally, Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson have reunited-ish! We tip our mysteriously-filled water bottles to them.
As if you weren't aware already, director James Toback has plenty to say about Tyson -- both his new documentary (opening today) and the former heavyweight champ who inspired it. Conveniently enough, some of what he and I didn't touch on during our conversation this week was caught by Movieline camera crews haunting the Sundance Film Festival, where Tyson enjoyed its U.S. premiere. In the clip after the jump, Toback details his introduction to Tyson 25 years ago, his motivations for making the documentary, and what it cost him both emotionally and out of pocket. And expect more of these videos in the weeks and months ahead.
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Prolific auteur and redonkulous superhuman Robert Rodriguez has dropped the curtain on his next projects: Most noteworthy is a reboot of sci-fi franchise Predator for Fox, introducing a new generation to the adventures of its titular ugly muddahfucka. True, the franchise has lived on in a pair of Alien Vs. Predator films, but this news should please purists who longed for a return to the simple pleasures of a single rastaterrestrial stalking some cannily resilient Austro-Bavarian prey.
UPDATE: Rodriguez will only produce the Predator reboot, which already has its release date. More after the jump.
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In today's Hollywood Ink ... Stephen Dorff stretches ... WMA and Endeavor rut ... Joseph Gordon-Levitt fills a James Franco-shaped hole in Chris Nolan's next movie ...
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After loudly declining the Cannes Film Festival's invitation to premiere his new film Tetro out of competition, Francis Ford Coppola apparently decided that the Riviera might be nice this time of year. As such, he'll be on hand after all to open the fest's Director's Fortnight sidebar.
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Welcome to another edition of Movieline Attractions, your guide to everything new, noteworthy and mildly exploitative at the movies. If you like pulp, this is your week, with everyone from Beyoncé to Billy Bob Thornton getting in the B-movie mix. Also: Channing Tatum fights, Mike Tyson talks (a lot) and Disney spans the globe.
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· Jay Leno has cashed in the single-sick-day-per-17-years allotted to him in his Tonight Show contract, checking into an undisclosed hospital after complaining of not feeling well. Not to worry, however, as a network rep assures that, "Jay Leno is doing just fine. He was kidding around with the hospital staff and running his monologue jokes by the doctors and the nurses." There's no better testament to the healing power of fake laughter.
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Though we're proud of the wide breadth of coverage and exclusive interviews we've given you since Movieline's launch, there is one beat we have neglected to own, and we are ready to apologize for it.
We have simply not talked enough with you about the new Beyoncé/Ali Larter fisticuffs drama Obsessed. Let's remedy that now, shall we?
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With American Idol rounding the home stretch -- Adam Lambert's hairsprayed mane held rigidly in place as he kicks dust into the face of the nearest competition, galloping three full Gokey-lengths behind him -- we thought we'd take a moment to sort through the avalanche of Idol-related items clogging our RSS feeders.
· Tonight's 20/20 features an exclusive one-on-one with Paula Abdul, in which the show's intermittently coherent cheer-fairy is asked point-blank if she's a pill-popping mess. She isn't. [ABC News]
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It was bad enough when Shrek wrote an advertorial in the Huffington Post. It was even sillier when Regis dressed up as the ogre for last night's Letterman. But this? THIS? What is going on?! Why this sudden burst of viral Shrek promotional insanity? Are these bizarre clues to J.J. Abrams's Wired issue or what? Is Malcolm Gladwell writing a book about this? WHY IS SHREK HAUNTING US?
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The retractable bone claws are out for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and fanboys and Fox execs are hurling accusations back and forth about the additional footage the studio claims to have integrated into the final cut. First, Fox head Tom Rothman promised there'd be ten minutes of new stuff that wasn't in the leaked workprint, a guarantee that HuffPo blogger Scott Mendelson found suspicious since the final running time hadn't changed a lick. A Fox source close to the film claimed that was because cuts had been made to the leaked version to accommodate the new footage, but an AICN spy who's seen the final cut begs to differ:
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While the Oscars seemed to avoid much fall-out from the ongoing international financial meltdown, an even newer, more sensitive brand of Hollywood has sought to distance itself from such fulsome displays of glamour and privilege. Now, according to one report, modesty is king. And before you complain about 30% fewer rhinestones on your swag-tent BlackBerry, consider the alternative: Cannes isn't getting anything.
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