It's been barely over a week since Britain's Got Talent's Susan Boyle shuffled that doily-printed sack dress into our hearts (well, some of our hearts). And in that short time, she's not just become a household name; she's become an anti-sex-symbol for our times, provoking heated debate over what constitutes "appropriate" eyebrow volumes and domestic arrangements when it comes to our frumpy, spinster popstars. But Boyle hadn't truly ensconced her meaty hooves into the pop culture pantheon until last night, when her name came up in a South Park episode. It wasn't in the most complimentary of contexts -- no singer every wants to be so overexposed as to induce the puking of balls -- but that's no matter. Boyle has arrived. The clip is after the jump.
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Last night marked an American Idol first, as the world's premiere talent bazaar and dream-snuffing showcase ejected two of its final eight (seven? fourteen? I honestly can't be bothered to do the math if they're going to keep changing the rules on us) contestants from the karaokedome's retractable roof via air cannon. First victim: Diva Disappointment™ Lil Rounds, whose Idol journey ended with a rote rendition of "I'm Every Woman," but who can cling to the fact that vestigial judge Kara DioGuardi thinks she "learned something ... you're going to use" as she flies through the air on her journey home. (What that something was DioGuardi did not say, but I suspect it has to do with the power of perseverance, individuality, and high-quality weaves available on Ventura Blvd.)
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Welcome to a very special edition of Movieline's Two-Minute Verdict, this time taking on the epic, seven-minute proportions of this opening clip from The Brothers Bloom. As director Rian Johnson explains in his introduction, the film features Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo as sibling con-men looking to grift the wealthy Rachel Weisz out of at least some of her riches. Alas, you will have to wait until May 29 to witness those exploits; for now, we have only the young brothers' origin story, a nifty (if essentially nonsensical, conspicuously derivative) short film on its own.
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· The mystery of how FX's censors might deal with Snakes on a Plane's most famous line of dialogue has now been solved. We're shocked to say we like it way better than the original. [/Film via PaulScheer.com]
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Via Televisionary blog , we bring you a sneak peek at the second season of HBO's True Blood, Alan Ball's vamps-on-the-bayou series that managed to sink its ridiculous fangs into us, despite regularly pushing the boundaries of supernatural-bodice-ripper plausibility.
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The new Paper Heart trailer is as good a means as any for determining one's Twee Tolerance Index, measuring your genetic capacity to endure the soft-spoken brand of naive preciousness that Charlyne Yi heaps upon this hard-to-classify, scripted-doc hybrid.
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While preparing to play a struggling comic in this summer's Judd Apatow film Funny People, Seth Rogen performed a few secret gigs in Los Angeles to get in touch with his stand-up roots. Now, it's possible to see just how far those roots extend, as a YouTube clip has surfaced of the teenage Rogen performing at a Vancouver comedy club. Squeaky-voiced and holding steady at the fighting weight he was recently forced to slim back down to, Rogen regales the crowd for ten minutes with jokes about Jews, school, and sports. While the set's G-rated humor gives little sign that this young Canadian talent will grow up to someday date-rape Anna Faris onscreen, Rogen nevertheless showed precocious promise. The clip, after the jump:
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At last night's The Informers premiere, we caught up with Thumbsucker star Lou Taylor Pucci, who talked to us about the bond he developed with costar Brad Renfro shortly before that actor's tragic overdose death. Remembering the longtime addict who was once splashed across the front page of the LA Times in handcuffs, Pucci could barely reconcile the stocky, broken Renfro with the star of films like Apt Pupil and Bully.
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Over five films, we've observed Harry Potter and his Hogwarts companions survive wand-fumbling puberty and brooding teen witchdom. Now, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, they have matured into formidable young adult conjurers. Watching these kids grow up is just one of the series' many charms. (We seriously wish they'd keep making these things until Daniel Radcliffe was 90, like Michael Apted's Up series with a $4 billion budget.)
The new trailer will officially release in two hours, but E! has a sneak preview, which we'll now scrutinize for your convenience in the latest edition of The 2-Minute Verdict.
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Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker has bounced around the festival circuit for more than six months to virtually unilateral acclaim -- so much so that the latest trailer for the Iraq bomb-squad thriller (opening June 26) feels almost anticlimactic. Almost.
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Believe it or not, Joel Schumacher movies don't just get slapped together in a couple weeks on the Warner's lot. (At least not any more.) There's evidently a process there, and you can see for yourself in dailies making the rounds as a "leak" from his new film Creek (nee Town Creek. Indeed, the scenes' lack of sound editing, narrative coherence or virtually any other post-production application implies some skulduggery, but there's precedent for us to be wary. Judge for yourself after the jump.
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In today's Two-Minute Verdict, we'll analyze the Chéri trailer to see why the reunion of Dangerous Liaisons alums Michelle Pfeiffer, director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Christopher Hampton has garnered less attention than Bai Ling's Oscar campaign.
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The Weinstein Company has taken a stirring new approach to hype since successfully setting an Oscar trap for Kate Winslet: Hammer American Idol viewers over the head with Quentin Tarantino and Inglourious Basterds. The filmmaker, who'd previously guest-judged in 2004 (Diana DeGarmo will never forget him), appeared last night as a mentor for "Idol's Night at the Movies." And while I will defer to our resident Idol-ologist Seth Abramovitch for an official assessment of Tarantino's counsel, follow the jump for a glimpse at the actual "movie" part of the QT dog-and-pony show.
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Two days after going nuclear with his (among other things), Jamie Foxx offered his apology during an appearance on The Tonight Show. Jay Leno broached the subject with care, lest Foxx reactively fall back on a burst of more race-bait rhetoric, but the Oscar-winning actor and comic expressed quick, unequivocal regret. And then he blamed the real culprit: the Internet.
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Movieline was not to launch for another 48 hours, but it made a strong impression as the final table at the 2009 edition of the Hollywood Assistant Beer Pong Tournament. With the hopes of teammates from studios, agencies and production companies rising and falling like the fate of a new spec script on the tracking boards, El Guapo Cantina was alive with the tapping of ping pong balls and the odor of spilled beer and any number of Axe products. If you missed the action or would like to piece together your memories of the magical night, we have all the sights and sounds you desire.
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