All Spinal Tap wanted was to pay tribute to the young man who paid tribute to them. And though it worked for a while on the band's recent "Unwigged and Unplugged" tour, that honor won't make the commemorative tour DVD set for release next month. Tough break, but that's apparently what happens when you've got Legos singing about penis size, sex with minors and "not a dry seat in the house."
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Here's something new for Stephen Sommers to whine about: Why is it that Julianne Moore, Zach Galifianakis, and Billy Crudup wouldn't return his calls to appear in G.I. Joe, and yet they were totally game to appear in Funny or Die's parody of the property? (Yes, that's Julianne Moore essentially playing Sienna Miller Rachel Nichols playing a character based on a cartoon based on a toy. Let that one sink in.)
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At Comic-Con, security was equipped with night-vision goggles that helped them crack down on anyone illegally taping the preview footage. Transgressors would then be plucked from their seats and sequestered in a special interrogation room, where, rumor had it, controversial nerdboarding techniques were employed. Still, that didn't stop all illicit pirating activity, as a certain hotly anticipated sequel's teaser footage -- let's just call it Shmiron Man 2, for keyword-search-evading purposes -- has leaked online. Apparently the film's director is aware of this, as he tweeted his appreciation for the feedback and promised to let his followers "know if/when official clean version goes up." All of this is likely to come down at any moment, but in the meantime, enjoy its varied, giant-donut pleasures.
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Now that his behind-the-scenes Red Hour video has become an unlikely, unintended viral smash, Ben Stiller wants to get in on this lucrative thing we call "online"! The first step: Open a Twitter. Done. Next step, maintain a Facebook fan page? OK, well, done. Third step: Record all of this. Why?
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There are going to be countless retrospectives in the days to come celebrating the John Hughes oeuvre, and discussing what he meant to American culture -- his contribution to the young adult canon being perhaps the most significant since that of J.D. Salinger's. But for the time being, I'd just like to be sad for a bit. You can be sad with me. Ironically enough, the first scene that occurred to me was one with no dialogue in it at all. I like to imagine it as a glimpse inside the movie in Hughes' own mind, with art direction by George Seurat and score by Johnny Marr.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume the following Ben Stiller video was not meant for public consumption, but as is the case with sex tapes, if you don't want your production company's lightly incendiary and completely hilarious inside jokes to leak -- don't make 'em.
In a week filled with so much sadness -- the fatal mauling of one of TV's most colorful executives by a white tiger named Ambition, the commencement of open hostilities between critics and a man with his hand indignantly thrust up a racist octogenarian's hindquarters, the initial failure by Fox to profitably exploit the romantic difficulties of the overweight in primetime -- we've been scrambling to find something to bring us a little joy. And today, finally, we've found it.
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Two years ago, Mark S. Allen, the entertainment douchebag for Good Day Sacramento (yes, it really exists, and isn't just a fanciful platform from which to launch the latest Katherine Heigl vibrating-panty vehicle) had to apologize publicly to Janet Jackson and Tyler Perry for doggedly pursuing a line of NippleGate questioning during an interview that infuriating both them and viewers. He was at it again today, but this time, he chose the wrong target: Joan Rivers.
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For all the public concern that has followed Where the Wild Things Are over years of development and production, Warner Bros. has to be pretty happy with the goodwill it managed to accrue last weekend at Comic-Con. But even some critics' observations that WTWTA was "the most beautiful thing we have seen" during this year's event haven't prevented Warner from enlisting author Maurice Sendak himself to defuse any lingering skepticism. Watch him make his case after the jump.
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· Disney's Tron Legacy had by far the coolest promotional stunt of anything at Comic-Con with its Flynn's Arcade experience, but -- putting aside the conceptual art they previewed -- the total amount of finished footage screened at the panel amounted to 0 minutes. So what's this nearly three-minute clip, which has appeared and disappeared on YouTube for about a year now, and appears to now be there for good? It's not the trailer, but rather test footage that screened for Comic-Con 2008 audiences. Still, as year-old test footage goes, it should succeed in mercilessly tickling the remote geek-quadrants of your brains.
We caught up with Nick Kroll, the star of ABC's ill-fated Cro-Magnon-Rom-Com Cavemen, at the Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers last night, and we had to ask him about A Good Old Fashioned Orgy.
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I'm coming a little late to Katie Holmes's performance last night on So You Think You Can Dance, her much-anticipated homage to Judy Garland's "Get Happy" number from Summer Stock. And while I wouldn't say Holmes embarrassed herself to the extent this morning's haters seem to believe, no one can really argue that it's a good thing the show isn't called So You Think You Can Lip Sync.
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Well, I survived the New Moon panel, and I'm happy to report there were no deaths, and only one mauling -- of a tall, chubby male photographer who stood in front of the stage and blocked an entire section's view of stars Ashley Greene (yay!), Kristen Stewart (YAYYYY!!), Taylor Lautner (AHHHHHHHHHGHHAHAHAHAH!!!!) and Robert Pattinson (*SOUND OF UNIVERSE FORMING*). Director Chris Weitz was on hand too, and asked to describe how Pattinson reminds him of his vampiric role, replied, "He has almost translucent skin, like Edward Cullen, and when the light shines just right he sparkles like diamonds." It seems not even The Golden Compass director is immune to Pattinson's charms.
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You gotta love Japanese TV. If an American show were to set about introducing Daniel Radcliffe to a Potter fanatic, they'd probably pass it along as an hour-long commercial for Half-Blood Prince, its 48-minutes' worth of scenes and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage interspersed with first-person testimonials from the little girl with leukemia whose family home was foreclosed upon just months before and whose dying wish it was to meet the boy wizard in the flesh. Which she would, two minutes before the show cut to its closing credit sweep, as 45,000 balloons dropped and Miley Cyrus sang something uplifting about magic being real if you just believe in the background.
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At first listen, the voice recording greeting callers to the Diamond Cinema in the Irish town of Navan sounds like it could be work of Sacha Baron Cohen himself -- with its accompanying YouTube presentation providing a viral boost for Brüno's second week in theaters. But it's much more fun to picture a real, beleaguered theater owner on the other end of the line, nursing a beer in one hand and a phone in the other, handing out refunds while advising callers to please, please avoid the "vile" and "offensive" comedy playing just down the hall. Hear it after the jump.
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