Slate Magazine - Hollywoodland

Why the actors' strike won't happen.

Kim Masters — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:13:12 EST

Actors' strike? We have been reluctant to address the latest labor conflict in Hollywood, but with the Screen Actors Guild contract set to expire Monday, we turn to the subject just long enough to say this about a strike: There's not going to be one.

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The case of the doctored Tom Cruise publicity photo.

Kim Masters — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:58:49 EST

Tomfoolery: It appears that Tom Cruise isn't putting all his eggs into the Valkyrie basket. Valkyrie, you'll recall, is the Bryan Singer-directed thriller in which Cruise plays a German officer who tried to assassinate Hitler. That project has hit some bumps on its way to theaters. Meanwhile, Cruise is also making an attempt to go back to his roots. But making that happen isn't simple: It seems that the Cruise camp recently reached out to Paramount about making Mission: Impossible 4 and got seriously disavowed.

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HBO's Roman Polanski problem.

Kim Masters — Mon, 9 Jun 2008 11:51:23 EST

Rewind: Tonight, HBO airs Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, a documentary that, according to the HBO press materials, raises "lasting questions about … the U.S. legal system." Without being exactly sympathetic to Polanski, the message of the film is clear: The courts did to him what he did to a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

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Does NBC really have an Office spinoff?

Kim Masters — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:25:55 EST

In front or upfront?: This evening, NBC's "experience" will be taking the place of the usual upfront presentation. Recall that the network said it would forgo all of that this year, opting for the "in-front" session several weeks ago. So instead of filling Radio City Music Hall with advertisers and the press, as usual, the network will instead have reporters walk through some sort of display that will expose us to the many facets of NBC—including its mighty cable properties and the Internet stuff that CEO Jeff Zucker bored us with in upfronts past.

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How did a Robert De Niro flop get chosen to close Cannes?

Kim Masters — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:29:24 EST

Weird: We've never been to the Cannes Film Festival, which is our loss, no doubt. But luckily we've already seen this year's closing-night selection, What Just Happened?, which leads us to ask, what did just happen?

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