If you don't recognize that African-American actor standing between Jack Black and Ben Stiller, there's a good reason: He's white. In Tropic Thunder, an epic action comedy co-written and directed by Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. plays Kirk Lazarus, a very serious Oscar-winning actor cast in the most expensive Vietnam War film ever. Problem is, Lazarus's character, Sgt. Osiris, was originally written as black. So Lazarus decides to dye his skin and play Osiris, um, authentically. Funny? Sure. Dangerous? That's an understatement. ''If it's done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago,'' Downey says. ''If you don't do it right, we're going to hell.''
The film marks Stiller's first directing effort since 2001's Zoolander. With Thunder (opening Aug. 15), he takes aim at the sweetest target of all: actors. Downey plays one of a team of self-indulgent stars cast in the modern equivalent of Apocalypse Now. Stiller plays an action hero who has just adopted a baby from Asia but worries that ''all the good ones are gone.'' Black portrays a comedian known for performing multiple roles in a single film — his latest is called The Fatties: Fart 2. But when the film's director (Steve Coogan) and writer (Nick Nolte) get fed up with their prima donna cast, they drop them into the jungle to fend for themselves. The actors think they're doing some sort of full-immersion filmmaking, but the danger they're in is very real.
Stiller got the idea for Thunder more than 20 years ago while shooting a small part in Steven Spielberg's WWII drama Empire of the Sun. He's continued to develop the script as his own star has risen, which makes taking on his brethren all the richer — watch for cameos from Tom Cruise and Tobey Maguire — and all the more perilous. For starters, Hollywood satires have a rocky box office record. And then there's that little issue of a white guy playing a black guy. Stiller says that he and Downey always stayed focused on the fact that they were skewering insufferable actors, not African-Americans. ''I was trying to push it as far as you can within reality,'' Stiller explains. ''I had no idea how people would respond to it.'' He recently screened a rough cut of the film and it scored high with African-Americans. He was relieved at the reaction. ''It seems people really embrace it,'' he says.
Paramount is hoping so: The studio plans to debut the trailer online March 17, and Downey is all over it. (In one scene, he tries to bond with a real African-American castmate by quoting the theme song from The Jeffersons.) Downey, meanwhile, is confident he never crossed the line. ''At the end of the day, it's always about how well you commit to the character,'' he says. ''I dove in with both feet. If I didn't feel it was morally sound, or that it would be easily misinterpreted that I'm just C. Thomas Howell in [Soul Man], I would've stayed home.''
[source]
Janet Jackson claimed the top spot on the U.S. pop album chart Wednesday for the first time in seven years, but with relatively dismal sales reflecting the overall slump in the music industry.
"Discipline," the sixth chart-topper of Jackson's career, sold 181,075 copies in the week ended March 2, according to Nielsen SoundScan data.
Her last two albums opened at No. 2, but with considerably higher sales: 2004's post "wardrobe malfunction" release "Damita Jo" with 381,000 copies, and 2006's "20 Y.O." with 296,000. Her last trip to the top was in 2001 with "All For You," which started with 605,000 copies.
Between 2001 and 2007, total U.S. album sales fell 34 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan. And 2008 is off to a bad start, with overall sales off 12 percent from the year-ago period.
Jackson's big brother, Michael, had the No. 9 album with his "Thriller" reissue, which sold about 42,000 copies in its third week. Alas for the self-styled "king of pop," Billboard does not include catalog reissues on its Billboard 200 chart.
After three weeks at No. 1, singer/songwriter Jack Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static" fell to No. 3 with 92,000 copies, taking his total to about 750,000 copes.
In between, "4th World War," the first half of Erykah Badu's double album series "New Amerykah," debuted at No. 2 with 124,000 copies. It's the R&B singer's first studio effort since 2003's "Worldwide Underground," an EP that began at No. 3 with 144,000. The second, as-yet-untitled portion "New Amerykah" is due some time this summer. Badu's last full-length album, "Mama's Gun," opened at No. 11 in 2000 with 191,000 copies.
Rapper Webbie's "Savage Life 2" started at No. 4 with 72,000 copies. His last solo release, "Savage Life," debuted at No. 8 in 2005 with 68,000.
Alicia Keys' "As I Am" fell three to No. 5 with 57,000. Miley Cyrus' double-disc "Hannah Montana 2 (Soundtrack)/Meet Miley Cyrus" jumped eight places to No. 6 with 54,000 copies.
Oscar glory propelled the soundtrack to the Oscar-winning romance "Once" up 24 places to No. 7 with 47,000 copies. The film's stars/songwriters, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, won the Academy Award for best original song on Feb. 24.
[source]
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s wedding plans have come to a grinding halt after the couple got into a screaming match over details of the ceremony, it has been claimed.
‘Fight Club’ star Pitt reportedly wants a big wedding in New Orleans, the town he has adopted in a bid to help get it back on its feet after Hurricane Katrina, while ‘Tomb Raider’ star Jolie says she would like a small, intimate ceremony in France - to honor her late mom Marcheline Bertrand.
And when 44-year-old Brad - who infamously divorced Jennifer Aniston in 2005 - told pregnant Jolie that he had asked his mother, Jane, to help with the arrangements, Angie hit the roof, sources claim.
“They ended up going to separate bedrooms and slamming doors. Angelina was so frustrated, she was crying,” one friend of the couple tells Star magazine.
Jolie’s main problem with Jane Pitt is her relationship with Aniston, and even suggested she should be on the guest list. “Brad tried to reassure Angie that she wouldn’t show up,” says the source. “Still Angie’s furious. Anytime Jen’s name is mentioned, she gets jealous.”
Angelina Jolie in some new St Johns ads
[source]
A court commissioner ruled Wednesday that Britney Spears' father will retain control of the troubled pop star's finances and estate for another five months.
Superior Court Commissioner Reva Goetz extended Jamie Spears' control until July 31, said court spokesman Alan Parachini. Parachini wasn't immediately able to provide more information.
James Spears was named co-conservator of the pop star's estate after she was hospitalized twice in January. His temporary authority to handle her affairs was to expire March 10.
In the year leading up to the hospitalizations, Spears had been caught on camera by paparazzi engaging in increasingly bizarre behavior. She shaved her head, beat a vehicle with an umbrella, wore skirts sans underwear and left her car on a busy thoroughfare after getting a flat tire.
The strange outbursts and hospitalizations contributed to the 26-year-old losing custody of her young sons, Jayden James, 1, and Sean Preston, 2. Ex-husband Kevin Federline continues to have full custody.
Spears was allowed brief visits with the boys beginning in late February after not seeing them for nearly two months. That happened after Spears and Federline "agreed to a modification of the court's order" that had stripped Spears of her visitation rights, according to Federline attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan.
Spears' parents came to Los Angeles around the time of her second hospitalization. They pushed to restore visitation rights with the boys.
Britney Spears out in jeans & red boots 
[source]
The 'Spider-Man' actress - who is currently seeking treatment for an undisclosed problem at Utah's Cirque Lodge facility - is said to have got close to a fellow patient and the pair are said to be inseparable.
An insider told In Touch Weekly magazine: "The staff have asked the two of them to separate many times. She sits on his lap while smoking cigarettes, they often take walks together.
"He has even phoned his mother and asked her to send Kirsten flowers at the facility from him. He is trying to be as romantic as it is possible to be in rehab."
Kirsten isn't the only celebrity to have found love at Cirque Lodge.
Lindsay Lohan met and started dating snowboarder Riley Giles while she was being treated the centre last year.
After enjoying a rehab romance, the pair continued their relationship after leaving, but soon split up. Riley later publicly revealed intimate details of his sex life with Lindsay.
[source]
In front of 400 friends and family, and with boyfriend Spencer Pratt at her side, The Hills star Heidi Montag bid a tearful goodbye to her stepbrother Eric O'Hara at a memorial service Wednesday in their hometown of Steamboat Springs, Colo.
"I didn't write anything down today, just couldn't. Eric was the best brother I could ask for," Montag said as she stood at the podium with their other siblings. "He was happy, strong and an amazingly patriotic person. I'll never forget how he could make me smile. I will remember all the times we had together and cherish all the memories, the goods ones and the bad ones. Eric was a true hero. I love him and I will miss him."
Montag, who flew back to Colorado after O'Hara, 24, died in a freak accident last Thursday, took solace in her family during the service.
After serviceman from O'Hara's 82nd Airborne Division gathered around his flag-draped casket to share stories about his military service (O'Hara was a veteran of several combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan), the family headed across the snow-covered street to the Tugboat Grill and Bar.
In a statement to PEOPLE, Montag said she was just "glad I can be with my family at this time."
[source]
Rocker Sheryl Crow has exploded the myth that Brad Pitt dumped then-wife Jennifer Aniston to romance Angelina Jolie, insisting her pal ditched the movie hunk - and not the other way around.
The widely held belief has been that the pair's marriage ended in 2005 after Pitt left Aniston, but Crow insists she and Aniston bonded after the former 'Friends' star dumped Pitt and she split from her fiance, cyclist Lance Armstrong.
Crow insists: "For both of us, the perceived idea is that, in our big relationships, we both got dumped. Believe me, this is not true.
"Neither one of us has ever gotten dumped. No one ever knows what goes on in relationships.
"Unfortunately, for some people like Jennifer and me, so much is written about things that you don't say, and so many emotions are attributed to you that you haven't had."
Friends have backed up Crow's claim - one pal telling the National Enquirer: "Once Jen saw the writing on the wall, she dumped Brad.
"She took a cold, hard look at her marriage and realised it was irretrievably broken. She and Brad had vastly different personal agendas and feelings about love, career and having a family."
[source]
Looks like Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie, now 40, has had a few too many of those peanut-butter and deep-fried banana sandwiches her father famously enjoyed.
Images of Lisa Marie looking more like her daddy in his later years than her still-stunning mother Priscilla at "The Grove" farmer's market in Los Angeles were captured by a paparazzo this past weekend.
Wearing a grungy yellow hoody and sweatpants, greasy hair pulled back, and no makeup to conceal her splotchy skin as she shoveled food into her bloated face, it's hard to imagine the former bombshell that looked so much like her mother.
The singer and philanthropist, whose ex-husbands famously include Nicolas Cage and Michael Jackson, is rumored to be pregnant with fourth husband Michael Lockwood's child, which might explain some of the dramatic weight gain.
Hopefully Lisa Marie's startling resemblance to her father at the end of his life is only a passing phase. The King died suspiciously of a heart attack at 42, just two years older than she is now, and weighed in at 250 pounds.
[source]
Patrick Swayze Slammed by National Enquirer
How to announce — or hide — Patrick Swayze’s illness proved to be quite a PR dilemma Wednesday. Rather than do what so many professionals have done — own up to it and blunt the story in advance — his press people did nothing but stonewall.
The result is a story Thursday on the cover of the National Enquirer saying that not only does Swayze have pancreatic cancer, which was confirmed, but that he has only five weeks to live.
So much pain could have been avoided here. The Enquirer doesn’t care what it writes, true or false, or a little bit of both. It’s amazing to me that they proceeded to publication and no one tried to stop them.
Patrick Swayze Diagnosed With Pancreatic Cancer
Simply issuing a statement, like the one that came later Wednesday afternoon from Swayze’s doctor, would have done the trick.
Now — as if it matters, frankly — it’s hard to know whom to believe.
One thing’s certain: Swayze didn’t just get sick. There was talk of his illness last winter. One Hollywood insider, who’s very real and top notch, told me she’d heard he’d been going for experimental treatment a while ago.
So the publicists lied. That’s not new. But what about the Enquirer? Their reports are hit or miss. Only this time, it involved a man’s life.
Do you remember in the spring of 2005 when they said Michael Jackson’s Neverland had been sold? They insisted that within 90 days we would know the name of the purchaser.
It never happened.
Last winter, they fired all kinds of accusations at presidential hopeful Sen. John Edwards. Again, nothing came of it.
What could be in it for the Enquirer to “expose” Swayze’s medical secrets — if they are even true? He’s just one of the nicest guys in the world. He’s never had one scandal, and has always been married to the same woman. He’s one of the few big stars in Hollywood who’s remained humble and friendly.
The Enquirer is like a mad man who enters a crowded room with a loaded gun and just starts shooting. Swayze most certainly has been affected by the Enquirer story in many negative ways. If he hadn't been able to tell all his family and friends about his illness, imagine them finding out that way. I wonder if the Enquirer editors would like this to happen to them. Shameful.
For the record, Swayze appears in a tape of an equestrian show on the Internet made a couple of months ago. He looked fine. He’s just wrapped two projects. Neither one of them, despite what you might have read elsewhere, has anything to do with cheerleading (I thought that was funny).
So we’ll put Patrick Swayze in our prayers. He has been the most gracious and understanding of any star of his generation. He had his moments with “Ghost,” “Dirty Dancing” and a few others. I am a particular fan of a film he made a few years ago with Forest Whitaker called “Green Dragon.” It wasn’t a hit.
But Swayze comprehended that his “hot moment” in Hollywood was over. He accepted this like a man, downsizing his acting career and diversifying his life to other loves. Let’s just hope that modern medicine and a bunch of x-factors kick in now. He deserves it. What he didn’t deserve was the National Enquirer’s half truths.
[source]
Apropos of its "only in L.A." plotline, Anthony Pellicano's trial could turn out to be a star-studded affair.
Chris Rock, Sylvester Stallone, Gary Shandling, Farrah Fawcett, Keith Carradine, Die Hard director John McTiernan and multiple studio executives and high-profile lawyers have made the list of potential prosecution witnesses made public on Wednesday.
A jury has been seated and opening statements are expected to kick off Thursday in Pellicano's trial on federal wiretapping and racketeering charges charges, with the former Hollywood dirt digger-upper planning to act as his own attorney.
Paramount Pictures chief executive Brad Grey, Universal Studios president Ron Meyer, erstwhile top talent agent Michael Ovitz and celebrity attorney Bert Fields are also among the 127 people who could be called to testify.
Rock has been identified as a former client of Pellicano's, having hired the private investigator to look into a paternity suit filed against him by model Monika Zsibrita in 1999.
The comedian admitted to employing Pellicano based on the detective's previously "excellent reputation," but he maintains he was unaware of the PI's allegedly unscrupulous tactics, which per authorities' accounts have included planting illegal wiretaps and utilizing insider contacts to comb trough the Los Angeles Police Department's confidential criminal database.
Stallone, Shandling and Carradine, meanwhile, have allegedly been on the receiving end of Pellicano's brand of hardball, targeted while the investigator was under the employ of others.
Carradine sued Pellicano in March 2006, accusing him of illicit eavesdropping while working for his ex-wife, Sandra Will Carradine, during their nasty divorce battle in the late 1990s, charging the duo were romantically involved at the time.
McTiernan remains free on $50,000 bail while he appeals his four-month prison sentence for lying to federal investigators in connection with their pursuit of Pellicano.
The filmmaker, one of 13 people charged in connection with Pellicano's alleged activities, originally claimed to have no knowledge of the private eye's illegal doings, but authorities later learned he had hired Pellicano specifically to listen in on a business associate's conversations.
source
It sounds like the most dangerous title in movies —Zack & Miri Make a Porno — but in comedy these days, the riskier the better.
Kevin Smith's film, now shooting in western Pennsylvania, stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as broke friends who embrace their desperation by making their own X-rated tape to pay off their debts. In the process, they uncover romantic feelings for each other.
Smith readily acknowledges that having "porno" in the title could turn off some potential viewers.
"We're just hoping that by the time the movie comes out, if the marketing people do their jobs right, it's a word that people will kind of get over," he says.
This is the era in which the nation just spent weeks chattering about Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel's dueling videos about having sex with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. (Banks released her own spoof video about Rogen.) And R-rated films such as Knocked Up (co-starring Rogen), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (co-starring Banks and Rogen) and Superbad are major comedy hits.
Industry analysts say Porno fits right in. "It's one of the best titles of the year," says Jeff Bock, an analyst with movie tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. "It sells the film for exactly what it is." It helps, he notes, that Smith (Clerks, Dogma) has a dependable fan base. "They'll follow him anywhere. I don't think anything is too risqué for Kevin Smith fans."
But that base is somewhat limited; Smith's films tend to gross $20 million to $30 million. (Knocked Up brought in nearly $150 million.) With star-on-the-rise Rogen and the success of Knocked Up, "expectations are up for this particular film," Bock says.
Those behind the film point out that it's more than just a filthy movie (though it's plenty filthy).
"What's weird about it is, it's dirty. But it's so incredibly sweet," Smith says, noting that Porno will be rated R (obviously, there's no actual porn in it). Banks says grown-ups are mature enough for immature jokes. "These kinds of comedies, these sweet and sexy comedies, have all started to push the envelope. This movie takes it even further, that's definitely true. But if you're over 15 years old … you know what sex is, and in comedy you're always trying to find those taboos that you can break for a laugh. Sex in America is a huge one."
And Rogen? For him, there's no safety in safety: "Oh, we are going too far … " He laughs and adds: "The first thing people should think is: 'Are they allowed to do that?' "
[source]
