movies | when just one source is not enough http://movies.maniaced.com movies | when just one source is not enough en <![CDATA[ 'Vanity Fair' Party Rises From The Dead, Looking Thinner [Oscars] ]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21701Hollywood may never fully recover from the WGA-strike-plagued awards season of 2008, marred by trophy presentations on Veoh, a potluck Governor's Ball, and—most shocking of all—the complete cancellation of the Vanity Fair party.

It was editor-in-chief Graydon Carter himself who called in the orders to screw shut the fudge spigots that would have turned Morton's into a living, breathing Chocolate Rainforest, replete with edible gummy macaques and a live musical performance by Tay Zonday. We bring good news, however: The Vanity Fair party is indeed on this year, albeit relocated to the far more intimate Sunset Tower Bar, in keeping with the current climate of corporate thriftiness. What's more, the magazine has secured the sponsorship of three blue-chip advertisers to fuel their week of Oscar starfuckery. From wwd.com:

The series of pre-Oscar events, christened "Campaign Hollywood" and cosponsored by advertisers BMW, Dior and Bally, begins Monday with VF portraits of Oscar-nominated and -winning actors being unveiled in the windows of Rodeo Drive boutiques...

On Feb. 20, daytime festivities include a test-drive of the new BMW 7 Series beginning at Griffith Park Observatory and ending with lunch at the John Lautner-designed Garcia Home.

That night's festivities include Bally's Hollywood Domino party on the rooftop of the new Andaz West Hollywood hotel, hosted by Bally creative director Brian Atwood and Kate Bosworth to benefit the Art of Elysium.

Finally, the magazine's famed post-Oscar party returns this year in a new location, the Sunset Tower hotel, which boasts a killer view but much less space than Morton's. Already several regular invitees have noticed the scale back, quietly asking one another, "I didn't get my invite this year, did you?"

If you're a regular on the guest list and have yet to receive yours, don't panic. In a cost-cutting measure, they've decided to forgo stamped invites, in favor of tagging potential guests in a Facebook note from Carter asking for "25 Facts About You Proving Your Worth To Our Fabulous A-list Party." Failing that, there's always the last-ditch, Sean Young approach: big sunglasses, black Reeboks, and hauling tail like your career depends upon it.

]]><![CDATA[ Salma Hayek's Breasts Designated As New U.N. Ambassadors To Starving Children [Nsfw-ish] ]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21700Though her stint on 30 Rock has been drubbed throughout the blogosphere, Salma Hayek's campaign to win over television viewers has just taken a startling new turn: breastfeeding strangers on camera.

In Africa with Diane Sawyer for Nightline, Hayek met a one-year-old who'd been born on the same day as her own daughter Valentina and was so moved by the coincidental bond that she popped out a breast and offered it to the grateful, suckling child. Adults who were born on the same day as Valentina will probably not be as lucky. (Also: Hey, Salma Hayek actually does speak English in a clear and natural manner! If only she could take a tip from real-life Salma's diction instead of hopelessly enunciating her 30 Rock dialogue as though she were a Grammy-addled Whitney Houston.)

]]><![CDATA[ Harvey Weinstein Critically Wounds Four In Oscar Gunplay [Oscars] ]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21698It didn't take much imagination to see Harvey Weinstein wielding the whip hand two weeks ago when theSlumdog Millionaire backlash commenced. At least not as much imagination as Harvey summoned to deny it.

EW on Monday outlined the Weinstein Company's strategy for establishing The Reader as a viable Oscar-night candidate — a position few if any industry observers have attributed to TWC, though they underestimated him just as gravely before Kate Winslet, Stephen Daldry and company rose up last month to knock The Dark Knight and Revolutionary Road off the Oscar bubble last month. But that's relatively ancient history, and in any case a less dangerous act of awards-season mayhem than his tack of outmarketing/outgrossing Milk and Frost/Nixon and (allegedly) throwing a latrine's worth of kiddie-exploitation shit at Slumdog.

Except, of course, Harvey doesn't know what you're talking about:

No one has accused Weinstein of being involved, but he knows his reputation precedes him. ''What can I say?'' Weinstein says, on the phone from Rome. ''When you're Billy the Kid and people around you die of natural causes, everyone thinks you shot them.''

As David Carr notes, Harvey's quite the fan of the pistolero-underdog myth, adapting it for Oscar '08 after last invoking it over seven years ago at Miramax. But the more important question, also raised by Vulture, is, "What was he doing in Rome?" The official response likely has something to do with making sure Fergie's labia-veil stays affixed throughout the production of Nine, but we think we know better: Someone owes Benjamin Button's late-season Roman plagiarism accuser a nice night out on the town.

]]><![CDATA[ 'Basterds' First Look: Brad Pitt Really Wants His 100 Nazi Scalps [Inglourious Basterds] ]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21699We can't say ET seems an entirely logical place to unveil Inglourious Basterds (Mary Hart: "Looks exciting, Mark! And now from Nazi scalps to Nazi scallops, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck previews his Oscar menu etcetc.")

In any case, here's a teaser of tonight's official Basterds footage debut, offering a taste of all the goosestep-activated tripwire excitement and Nazi-scalping fun to come. (We have a feeling the first time this aired at the Pitt-Jolie's, it was followed by a lengthy father-son talk in which Brad explained to a worked-up Maddox, "Nazis don't exist anymore, and even if they did, you wouldn't have my permission to scalp them.")

Also revealed: the projects' official logo. But don't be surprised if the final one-sheets replace the Nazi eagles and swastikas with smiley-faced dingbats and a variety of stick-figures representing Brad Pitt and his men in a rowboat. [ET Online]

]]><![CDATA[ Hilary Duff Downgrades Faye Dunaway Standoff To Near-Peacetime Levels [Hilary Duff] ]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21696Hilary Duff has reportedly blinked in the escalating Cuban Missile Crisis of Hollywood catfights, standing down from last week's vicious retaliatory attacks against Faye Dunaway.

Duff had launched a Tween Army defensive in the propaganda war against Dunaway, who'd previously wondered why producers couldn't "get a real actress" for the forthcoming The Story of Bonnie and Clyde. But it proved to be an untenable attack ("I think it was a little unnecessary but I might be mad if I looked like that now too"), crushed by Dunaway's legend and other wintry conditions that forced Duff to stand down in time for today's Bonnie Hunt Show:

"[Dunaway] started acting way later than I did so I think I have time to grow and grow with each project. I am learning and work hard at my craft."

Bonnie comforts Hilary and says, "I think even Faye went through a time, if you look historically, where some people might have said that about her. She has great beauty but she proved herself."

Duff admits that what she said was mean but says, "It's not OK for people to take stabs at you and to say mean things for no reason."

We don't know what the ensuing Cold War period will bring, but even the flimsiest of olive branches is to be commended with so much at stake for moviegoers worldwide. May that other great superpower Warren Beatty uphold their peace, sparing Duff's Clyde Barrow-reviving co-star a similar, "I take dumps bigger than Kevin Zegers" indignity in the crucial months ahead.

]]><![CDATA[ Switch-Hitter Anne Heche Goes To Bat for 'Hung' [Trade Roundup] ]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21697· Anne Heche will play the ex-wife of Ray, the anatomically superendowed protagonist of Hung. She replaces Kristin Bauer, last seen being escorted away in a wheelchair, dead-eyed and repeating, "The diameter...the diameter..." [THR]

· NBC has picked up a reality series starring Tony Robbins which they plan to pair with The Biggest Loser for an inspirational programming block they're calling "So You Lost the Manboobs—Now What? Tuesdays." [Variety]
· Lionsgate posted loses of $93.4 million, vs. a profit of $7.3 million one year earlier. Turkeys The Spirit, Punisher: War Zone and Transporter 3 were blamed, as well as double-digit drops in home video sales. Mad Men and Crash's lifted the TV division's profits 82%. Such is the power of the Hamm...and racist cars. [Variety]
· Actor/writer Chris Moynihan (For Your Consideration, Psych) got a greenlight for his pilot 100 Questions for Charlotte Payne, about a (everybody now!) "young woman navigating dating life in Gotham." We have three: 1. Is he perhaps just not that into you? 2. Are you a werewolf? 3. Do you know Charlotte Simmons? [Variety]
· Aaron Eckhart and Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins have joined Johnny Depp in Rum Diary, based on Hunter S. Thompson's novel about a "washed-up, hard-drinking journalist (Depp) in 1950s Puerto Rico." Cult-favorite director (Withnail and I, How to Get Ahead in Advertising) directs—his first feature since 1992's Jennifer Eight. This is the kind of movie we could really imagine our ex-hippie alcoholic pothead 8th grade math teacher getting into. God we hope he's still alive. [THR]

]]><![CDATA[We Can't Wait #10 Taking Woodstock]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21695Directed by Ang Lee
Starring Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, Paul Dano, Kelli Garner, Imelda Staunton, Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Synopsis: Gay ol' Demetri and his life in the Catskills get caught up in the Woodstock hoopla in the summer of 1969.
Brought to You By Focus Features
Expected Release Date August 14

Ang Lee on set / author Elliot Tiber / Emile Hirsch on set

Joe: Ang Lee gays up another aspect of the modern American mythology. First cowboys, now the counterculture. Are we nervous about an unproven lead actor? Are we overestimating the gay factor?

Fox: I wonder how much Lee has to do to gay up of '60s counterculture in the first place. I mean, it was pretty gay already with the free love and all, right? Or, did the free love still kinda exclude the dude-on-dude action?

JA: It's Ang. I'm there. Also I'm hoping to find Emile Hirsch cute and appealing again, after being the only person who didn't think he was either in Milk. Win me back, Emile! If you wanna make out with Demetri in order to find my good graces, they do lay in that general direction.



poll by twiigs.com



Whitney: Demetri in an Ang Lee movie is the funniest thing I've heard since I heard Demetri's last stand up. I'm always a little so-so on Mr. Lee, but I'm really interested in Taking Woodstock.

Nathaniel: I haven't read up much on this one yet (though info is mere pages away) but I like Demetri and the supporting cast is intriguing / strong. Most importantly, what I've found is that it doesn't quite matter what the theme, time period or milieu is, Ang Lee will find a way to burrow in under the skin of it and make it his very own. His Woodstock will soon be ours for the taking. And after Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense & Sensibility, The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain and Lust Caution, why wouldn't we wanna take?
**]]><![CDATA[Our Pick for Best Picture: And the Oscar Goes To ...]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21694In the world of movies it's the biggest prize there is. Golden Globes, People's Choice, Independent Spirit, all serious achievements, but they pale next to the big one. Can a scrappy movie about a Mumbai street kid beat out heavy literary adaptations and serious political biopics? Here's our look at the nominees, from least likely winner to most.

Frost/NixonFrost/Nixon
This adaptation of the smash hit play pits British television host David Frost against the disgraced former president in a fictionalized… ]]><![CDATA[Breakfast With... Andy Sachs]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21693

It's unclear if she chews but there's definitely some inhaling going on. This, the movie tells us, is the breakfast of "smart, fat girls*" Andy hasn't yet learned that she should be counting almonds or nibbling on a cube of cheese or seeking a stomach flu.

*As comically deranged as it is to call Anne Hathaway a "smart fat girl" aren't we glad that the movies took a chance on her? [Hathaway for the win!]]]><![CDATA[Video Exclusive: Bolt Behind the Scenes - Story]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21692<![CDATA[ET Teases Inglourious Basterds Teaser]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21684<![CDATA[Carey Mulligan - RT's Fresh Talent]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21685<![CDATA[Michael Bay Talks Transformers 2]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21686<![CDATA[Photographer Releases Book of Watchmen Portraits]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21687<![CDATA[Nightmare on Elm Street Reboot Targets Early 2010]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21688<![CDATA[Aaron Eckhart, Richard Jenkins Read Rum Diary]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21689<![CDATA[Stiller Gets Company in Baumbach's Greenberg]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21690<![CDATA[New Groundhog Day Commentary Track Available for Download]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21691<![CDATA[NYCC: Mattel Unveils Ghostbusters Figures]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21683<![CDATA[RT on DVD: Oliver's W, Spike's St. Anna, and My Name is Bruce!]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21682<![CDATA[ Sexman Draws Line At 50 Cent Dildos [Short Ends] ]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21681· Everyone's favorite be-headgeared pop-culture commentator Sexman has just about had it with 50 Cent's crass commercialism and molded dildos. "What's next," he asks, "Diapers for your little gangsta?" [via fimoculous]

· Courtney Love giving some sexy side-blob. Down boys.
· Your first glimpses of Tron 2: Wario's Revenge will be at San Diego Comic-Con, io9 reports.
· A History of Shit in the Movies.
· Tony Kushner said a decision on Lincoln should be made by next week, a greenlight resulting in the Steven Spielberg biopic being "out by Christmas."

]]><![CDATA[12 Days of Friday, Day 8: Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21680<![CDATA[We Can't Wait #11 Watchmen]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21679Directed by Zach Snyder
Starring Billy Crudup's CG'd manhood, Malin Akerman's pleather dominatrix get-up, possibly Patrick Wilson's ass (do not cheat me of Patrick Wilson's ass, Zach Snyder! You promised you're staying true to the book!), and other people obscured to varying degrees by CG and their outfits
Synopsis In an alternate version of 1985 where Richard Nixon is still president and the world is on the edge of apocalypse, somebody's decided to start offing retired superheroes. Masked man Rorschach wants to find out why. Lots of bad stuff happens. Maybe a squid is involved. The end.
Brought to you by the man responsible for 300, of which people's mileage will most certainly vary wildly
Not Brought to You By Alan Moore, the graphic novel's author, who is a little bit crazy and a lot vociferous on the fact that this should have never been made (he calls it "regurgitated worms"!)
Expected Release Date March 6th, now that the FOX execs have been fed their seventy virgins.

Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan

JA: I for one am a 300 defender, but this is a whole different ballpark for Mr. Snyder to be wandering into. This isn't just pretty pictures of mostly-naked men, decapitations, and giant elephants in the Spartan version of those 40's propaganda cartoons starring Daffy Duck. This is holy land. Watchmen is sacred geek ground, and the apex of what superhero storytelling is all about. It's as good as it gets.

Where The Dark Knight made strides towards a more adult realization of the genre's possibilities, if Snyder were to capture all that this story has on the page then this could, then this should, be the first superhero movie nominated for Best Picture.

Nathaniel: I know you just didn't open up that can of worms again! [editor's note: Nathaniel's rant about stuffy Oscars, crazy fanboys & "dark" superheroes has been excised on the grounds of 'let's not go there again'] ...I don't trust this Zach Snyder person!

Joe: Oddly enough, after hating the shit out of 300, I do trust Snyder. What he did right on that dick-measuring-contest-put-to-celluloid (the spectacle, the fidelity to the source material; the operatic drama) will work well on Watchmen, and this time he doesn't have to worry about Frank Miller's weird psycho-sexual hangups. Between these two and the Dawn of the Dead remake, Snyder has become THE go-to guy for faithful ambitious adaptations of genre material,

Nathaniel: There was more to this conversation readers but I have to interrupt. I caught about 17 minutes of Watchmen at Comic Con.

[Spoilers follow]

The movie begins with a newscast talking about possible nuclear attacks on America. We're back in the Cold War 80s but in an alternate reality from our own. The newscaster assures us that there won't be a nuclear war because of somebody named "Dr. Manhattan" (that'd be glowing blue Billy Crudup. I have not read Watchmen as Joe and Ja have but I have absorbed a few character details over the years). Cut to Jeffrey Dean Morgan who plays "The Comedian" smoking a cigar in his apartment. He wears that famous yellow happy face pin from the 80s on his bathrobe. He recognizes the intruder and they have a nasty wince filled fight (one shot of the Comedian's head taking a huge chunk out of the kitchen counter. Ouch). Morgan is sent through a plate glass window and plummets to his death. Cue: Watchmen's iconic marketing image, the happy face marred by a blood splatter. Cue: opening credits.


The credits were very cool and filled with brief illustrated tableau referencing either famous cultural moments twisted for this alternate universe --the recreation of that famous WW II kiss is awesome -- or the history of the Watchmen characters. I know that people are expecting this movie to be huge but I wonder. Everyone knows the Batman mythos. It's been with us for 70 years. I'm guessing non Watchmen readers will be very confused. Trust me, I was... and I basically know the concept and characters.

Once the credits are over, we meet Rorschach, pictured left. He's played by Little Children's Jackie Earle Haley and he speaks in Batman Bale's voice (???). He also hates liberals and intellectuals. (Er... is this another neo conservative movie? Aren't we supposed to be entering a new era? Bah!) He uses a grappling hook to scale the building and searches the apartment of the dead guy we met pre-credits. Fade out. That was the first 16 minutes or so.

We were also treated to a very brief scene from somewhen else in the movie (inside a prison). Rorschach is waiting in line for grub and hurls frying oil from the line onto the face of a fellow prisoner who was threatening him. Gruesome! As the guards restrain him he growls...
You don't understand. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in hear with me!
This would have been very scary -- Haley is good at creepy -- were it not for Batman's voice.

The Comic Con crowd went absolutely wild for all of this. At the Q & A that followed audience members at the mic gushed that the movie would be perfect and thank-you-so-much-for-making-such-a-wonderful-movie (Here we go again! Another #1 on the IMDB the day the movie opens. Trust me. People have already decided it's their favorite movie). Original Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons was an engaging presence and gave details: no squid --sorry JA, total Dr Manhattan nudity assured. He also discussed why Watchmen creator Alan Moore's name is nowhere on the movie. But what's odder than Moore not wanting credit is that he also turned down all moneys. He crazy!

Carla Gugino and Malik Akerman as Silk Spectre & Silk Spectre II

The most interesting part of the conversation was Gibbons' well spoken dismay at how influential Watchmen has been. Both he and Moore wanted to do a fresh adult take on superheroes (this isn't a superhero film for kids) but they certainly didn't think that all comic books that followed should decide that dark and cynical was the way to go. He cited the Spider-Man movies (thank you) as another great way to do things and said there's room for multiple takes on the genre. Exactly!

Readers... do you need a break from superhero movies or will you be lining up to see Nite Owl, Silk Spectre and Dr Manhattan strut their CGI stuff?
*]]><![CDATA[ Bloody, Bruised Rihanna May Be Holding Up Assault Investigation [Celeb Jurisprudence] ]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21677O, for the old days of last week, when threats were contained to on-set blowups and transformed into danceable mixes. Here are the latest, unsettling details on the Rihanna/Chris Brown case:

Though Rihanna is still in seclusion (with reports alleging she's being treated at Cedars-Sinai), TMZ has more details on the injuries Brown is alleged to have caused.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ Rihanna's injuries were severe — two "huge contusions" which swelled up on both sides of her forehead. We're told she also suffered "a bloody lip and nose."

One of the law enforcement people put it this way — the contusions "look like an MMA fighter or something ... [It] looked like she was growing devil's horns."

MediaTakeOut, though, is citing sources close to Rihanna in its report that she is no longer cooperating with the investigation against her boyfriend:

Now MediaTakeOut.com can EXCLUSIVELY report that Rihanna does NOT want Chris Brown to be criminally punished for the alleged assault. According to an EXTREMELY reliable insider, Rihanna is NO LONGER assisting investigators in their criminal case against Chris Brown.

Unfortunately for Chris, that's probably not going to make the charges go away. Police claim that, on the scene of the incident, Rihanna identified Chris Brown as the man who assaulted her. Additionally, police have physical evidence. MediaTakeOut.com can OFFICIALLY CONFIRM that Rihanna's face and arm were severely bruised in the incident and Chris suffered from minor bruising as well.

There is some evidence in Chris' favor, however. For example, according to a MediaTakeOut.com reader on the scene, Rihanna did NOT call the police alleging that Chris assaulted her. It was a bystander that called 9-1-1. Shortly afterwards, the police arrived on scene and interviewed Rihanna.

So yes, in short: things are terrible.

]]><![CDATA[ Grow 'Roid Boobs: Let Nitro Tell You How! [To Do] ]]>http://movies.maniaced.com/?pid=21678· American Gladiators alumnus Nitro — née Dan Clark — will share good, bad, ugly and 'roidally deranged tales from the old days while reading his new biography at Book Soup.

· Le Switch, Blank Blue and Les Blanks (we can't keep them straight either) are at Spaceland; Golden State is at the Viper Room.
· As per every Monday, you can screen your undistributed and/or unfinished and/or unheralded cinematic masterpiece for free at the Bungalow Club.

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