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What Other Everyday Relationship Issues Should be Romantic Comedies?
Can Machete Make Us Like Steven Seagal?
It's 90210 Day. How Will You Observe?
T.I. Arrested Again
Industry Roundup: Fox Sets Jamie Foxx Project For Midseason
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Debbie Harry on Blondie's Staying Power
Because Lionsgate has not much else besides The Expendables and Kick-Ass to push for awards this fall, Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf — starring Thandie Newton, Whoopi Goldberg, Kerry Washington, Phylicia Rashad, and Janet Jackson — has been moved from its planned January 14, 2011 release to a more Oscar-friendly one of November 5. For your consideration, indeed. [Cinematical]
Better luck next time, Shania Twain: TMZ says Jennifer Lopez is "in the final stages of negotiations" to join Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson at the American Idol judges' table. Earlier reports said she'd priced herself out by demanding $20 million per year, but TMZ's sources say "there has been no drama and no diva demands … It's been typical negotiating." A signed deal is expected sometime next week. Oh well.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman starring in a romantic comedy, must be in want of a man — and have a best friend (or sister) on hand to crack wise and provide emotional support while she deals with him. Many actresses have proven to be experts at playing this part: the voice of reason, the hatcher of plots, the teller of sex jokes. There’s Christina Applegate, who has made a career of being a sassy best gal pal to Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow, and, this week, Drew Barrymore; there’s Judy Greer, who quirkily guided Katherine Heigl through her romantic crisis, and will shortly do the same for Anne Hathaway; there’s Krysten Ritter, who sweetly counseled Isla Fisher, and will soon assist a vampire Alicia Silverstone; and that’s just to name a few actresses who regularly deploy best-friend capabilities in romantic comedies. So how do you choose the perfectly replaceable, yet ideally scene-stealing best friend that’s right for your movie? Why, use this handy flowchart to find out!
More proof that beautiful celebrities live under a different set of rules than the rest of us: Robert "Joe" Halderman, the TV producer sentenced to six months in prison for attempting to extort David Letterman out of $2 million, was released today after serving only four. [AP]
"It's an honor to be the first Latino superhero. And I didn't have to wear tights, and I didn't have a Daddy-hates-me complex." —Danny Trejo [LAT]
"He described it as: 'You're going to have a sex scene with yourself.' And I thought that was very interesting, because this movie is in so many ways an exploration of an artist's ego and that narcissistic sort of attraction to yourself and also repulsion with yourself." —Natalie Portman, on her conversations with Darren Aronofsky about her lesbian love scene in The Black Swan [People]
Going the Distance, out tomorrow, is a romantic comedy about a couple facing a very common hardship: the difficulties of navigating a long-distance relationship. And in a summer (er, decade) of high-concept rom-coms filled with mistaken identities, bets, lies, and plot twists that, when looked at closely, resemble the works of psychotic criminals, it's somewhat refreshing to have a movie based on a relatable, quotidian problem. It's not that we don't enjoy watching someone discover her husband is actually an assassin (Killers), or finding out that her best friend is actually the father of her child (The Switch), but it's also nice to watch people stumble through something that actually happens in real life, and maybe — probably most definitely — work their way through it. Frankly, it can make for a much more gratifying taste of wish-fulfillment. So here are our own suggestions for romantic comedies based on other everyday relationship troubles.
In Gareth Edwards's Monsters — arriving on VOD, iTunes, Playstations, and Xboxes on September 24, and theaters on October 29 — a reporter escorts a terrified American tourist back home through a Mexico filled with scary space aliens (see the trailer here). Vulture's been given first crack at the film's poster, which you can see in full after the jump.
After Apple unveiled their new music social-networking service Ping yesterday, Gawker noticed an interesting tidbit: Certain tweets from Lady Gaga pertaining to California's gay-marriage trial have been deleted in the Ping version of her feed. Is Apple censoring Gaga's gay content? Because if so, they're setting themselves up for a lot of work moving forward. [Gawker]
A funny thing happened while we watched Robert Rodriguez’s latest Mexploitation flick, Machete, last week. A strange, unfamiliar feeling came over us, as the film’s portly drug-dealer villain Torrez lumbered onto the screen. At first we thought we were mistaken, but pretty soon it became undeniable: We were actually enjoying a Steven Seagal performance. And not just sort of enjoying it in an ironic way, but really enjoying it. Sporting a ridiculous Mexican accent, brandishing Japanese sabers, with half-naked (and in some cases, naked-naked) Asian women draped all over him, Seagal was not only funny, he was actually kind of self-deprecating. For once, he seemed to be in on the joke. And it wasn’t long before we began to think “comeback.” But this in turn led to some complicated soul-searching on our part. Because Steven Seagal, over the years, has not proven himself to be an easy guy to like.
Don't even get us started on the whole reincarnated-Buddhist-master thing. 
If you've not yet seen it, you'd probably be horrified to learn that there's a video circulating (don't watch it!) of a Bosnian woman tossing adorable puppies into a river. Well, Michael Bay to the rescue, sort of! Yesterday, on his official website, the Transformers director offered $50,000 for any information that would bring the puppy-thrower to justice. Wrote Bay's webmaster, Nelson:
Michael Bay has informed me that he is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and successful prosecution of the woman in the red sweatshirt and the person who shot this act of cruelty.
Then, shortly after, the message was mysteriously deleted. Anybody hear any loud explosions in Bosnia last night?
Transformers Director Michael Bay Offers $50,000 Bounty for Puppy-Throwing Girl [Gawker]
Today, the calendar has conspired to bring us a rare treat: 90210 day (or 09/02/10 day). Various commemorations and festivities are in the works, but you can also celebrate in smaller, more personal ways: by drawing some sweet sideburns on your face, taping a peach pit to your lapel, going to Mexico without your passport, or spending all day telling everyone “I choose me.” Other suggestions on how to honor this glorious day are welcome in the comments.
You hate to see this: Rapper and Takers star T.I., still on probation following his release from prison in March, was arrested with his wife on drug charges last night after a police officer smelled what he says was marijuana smoke coming from their car. The pair were released around 4 a.m. on $10,000 bail each. Here's hoping this does not affect T.I.'s upcoming album, King Uncaged (allegedly due later this year), or his planned movie with Brett Ratner. Actually, we're negotiable on the latter.
Rapper T.I., wife arrested on drug charges [AP] T.I. and His Wife Busted for Possession [TMZ]
Just days after winning his third Emmy for Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston announced that he’ll be hosting Saturday Night Live for the first time on October 2, the second episode of the upcoming season. He’ll be the third actor from an AMC series to appear on SNL , and we’re optimistic his performance will be much closer in quality to Jon Hamm’s than January Jones’s — though it will probably involve more Malcolm in the Middle jokes and less saxophone. [LAT]
Late Night's Jimmy Fallon was allowed to host Vogue overlord Anna Wintour and her sidekick Marc Jacobs as they promoted the latest installment of her all night shop-a-thon, Fashion's Night Out. Jimmy seemed more interested in talking about the Met Ball, so Anna treated him to the tale of the last time they all got dressed up and drank booze in the museum, when Lady Gaga's 45-minute conversation with God kept Nuclear and her guests waiting. Up next, Craig Ferguson sniffs Rachel Ray's fingers and discovers that they don't all smell like biscuits, and then Donald Trump's tongue goes green after shooting some wheatgrass with David Letterman on The Late Show. Finally, on The Tonight Show, Thomas Haden Church tells Jay Leno why he's annoyed with Robert Duval's new "faith-based" golf movie that's filming near his isolated ranch in Texas. Watch our compilation to see what you missed.
Foxy: Fox is preparing a primetime sketch comedy series for midseason from Jamie Foxx. The network has given the half-hour show - which it is tentatively calling The Jamie Foxx Project - a 12-episode order. Foxx had been working on a different sketch comedy pilot for Fox this past development cycle, but this new project is different and the original pilot will reportedly be scrapped. The show will take on “pop culture, spoofing movie trailers, commercials, TV shows, music videos and celebrities, with a diverse cast of young new comedians.” This week is really not a high point for creativity in naming television shows. [HR]
Enter Sandman: Neil Gaiman’s legendary 1990s comic book series The Sandman is in the early stages of being developed into a TV series. Warner Bros. TV is in talks with several writer-producers about adapting the comic, with Supernatural creator Eric Kripke the current frontrunner. Sandman centers on Morpheus, the Lord of the Dreaming, a “deity who personifies dreams.” A movie version has been in development since the mid-90s but never gotten off the ground. [Heat Vision/HR]
Plus: 'Battlestar Galactica' creator developing "adult Harry Potter."
A New York resident has sued Sean “Diddy” Combs, filing an age discrimination lawsuit Wednesday in Manhattan federal court in which she claims Diddy fired her because of her age. Francesca Spero, 51, said she helped launch Combs’ career when she introduced him to Russell Simmons and Uptown Records in 1988. She worked as an executive at Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment record label for 12 years before she was fired in March after she underwent hip surgery and confided to an executive that she was treated for a drug dependency relapse. The response from Combs’ publicist? “There are many reasons why Ms. Spero is no longer employed by Bad Boy, but age discrimination is not one of them." [AP]
Warner Bros. has been developing Alfonso Cuaron’s 3-D space thriller for some time now, with Robert Downey Jr. attached to co-star in the $80 million flick. But the future of the project is suddenly in jeopardy, according to Deadline, now that Angelina Jolie has - for the second time - declined the leading role of a woman on a mission to return home to her child. Cuaron initially approached Jolie for the pivotal role (the heroine is the only person onscreen for a large part of the movie). When she turned it down, the studio tested or approached a slew of actresses, including Sandra Bullock, Natalie Portman, Naomi Watts, Marion Cotillard, Carey Mulligan, Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, Abbie Cornish, Rebecca Hall, Olivia Wilde, Blake Lively. (In early August, the Hollywood Reporter had Lively and Johansson as the frontrunners.) Apparently unsure that any of these women "can hold the screen and draw an audience to an $80 million film," the studio made a second attempt to get Jolie, who has now "just passed for a second time." Considering this project does seem pretty perfect for Jolie, let's hope she changes her mind (Bullock or Portman could also probably pull it off)... at the very least, let's cross our fingers the studio doesn't pull a "reverse-Salt."
Angelina Jolie Pass Puts 'Gravity' In Shaky Orbit For Warner Bros [Deadline]
The Precious star has scored the female lead opposite Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner in Please Forget Tom Cruise Is In This Movie the fourth, still unnamed Mission Impossible flick. Patton - who reportedly beat out actresses like Lauren German (Hostel: Part II) and Kristen Kreuk (Smallville) for the part - will play a "young operative" in the Brad Bird-directed film. [Deadline]
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Eat Pray Love: “In this golden turd, everyone helps Julia Roberts find herself so she can then experience true love.”
Ari Graynor at Trust Opening Night
Julia Roberts at the Eat Pray Love Premiere
Kerry Washington at The Tillman Story Premiere
Sarah Jessica Parker at The Big C Screening
Eva Mendes at The Other Guys Premiere
