The standard warning: If you would like to see some of the latest entertainment news, celebrity gossip and odd crap making the rounds, keep reading. However, if you are easily offended by half-nude men & women or other such things, you might want to stop right now.....You've been warned.
[Owen Wilson's Suicide Attempt]
The question "why" is one that almost anyone who's ever had a family problem has probably asked. In Owen Wilson's case, the tabloids are joining his family in trying to understand why he decided to swallow a bottle of pills and slash his wrist. The usual suspects of depression, addiction and love are being cited. According to People.....
For now, Wilson's immediate well-being is the primary concern of friends such as Woody Harrelson, Wes Anderson, Samuel L. Jackson and Brad Garrett, who visited Wilson at the hospital, as well as the actor's close-knit family.
Brothers Luke, 35, who initially found Owen after the suicide attempt, and Andrew, 43, were by his side in the hours and days after the incident; his parents, Robert, 66, and Laura, 67, fought past anguish and exhaustion as they kept a revolving vigil.
What drove Wilson to an act of self-destruction that one friend calls "the most out-of-character thing"? Even Wilson's closest friends admit that he has a dark side and his share of demons, which have included drug addiction. One friend notes that his drug use in the past has ventured into "the hard stuff," and he landed in rehab twice in the 1990s. Still, when asked what brought him to the point of suicide, a good friend says, "It would be irresponsible to say it was any single thing. People are complicated. Owen is no different."
Other factors that have been put on the table are his break-up with Kate Hudson, and his despair in seeing her in tabloids making out with Dax Shephard.....
Owen, 38, continued to withdraw and succumb to depression following his June split from Hudson, who is now dating Punk'd star Dax Shepard - which might have pushed Wilson over the edge. "Seeing her happy with someone else made him happy that she'd found that," says one longtime Wilson family friend, "but made him hate himself so much more that he could never do it.""
Wilson's friendship with British actor Steve Coogan is also being cited as a source of problems. According to US Weekly.....
The party boy rehab veteran was Owen's costar in Night at the Museum and Around the World in 80 Days.
"I went through it with Steve," rocker Courtney Love, who dated Coogan, 41, until an acrimonious split in 2006, tells Us. "I was just out of rehab, and he was right there with the drugs," she says. "I tried to warn Owen. I tried to warn his friends ... I hope from the bottom of my heart that Owen stays the hell away from that guy." Indeed, former girlfriend Kate Hudson, 28, "forbid him from letting Coogan into his house. She knew he was bad," says another source.
Coogan told Extra that these claims are untrue. "These accusations are unfounded, unhelpful and hurtful to all concerned," Coogan responded. "We are taking legal advice."
Wilson has put out a statement asking for the media to give him & his family space, and has withdrawn from some of his future film projects.....
[Bobby Brown Is Living In His Car?]
Earlier this month, it seemed like reconciliation might be possible between Bobby Brown & Whitney Houston. Now they are fighting in divorce court again. According to Extra, Bobby Brown claims in court documents that he pays so much in support that he's had to resort to living in his car.....
"Since Whitney has been awarded sole legal and physical custody of Bobbi Kris, she has attempted to eliminate me from Bobbi Kris’ life."
He also states, "I did all I could to see my daughter...I also paid approximately $10,000 for Whitney and Bobby Kris to live in a nice hotel while Whitney was going through rehab...I basically lived in my car."
He concludes, "I have not seen or spoken to my daughter since early June and I have no prospect of speaking to her or seeing her anytime soon due to Whitney’s actions."
For her part, Whitney responded by saying she wants Bobby to be a part of their child's life, but that she needs the divorce to get her life back on track.....
[Is Lindsay Lohan Using Drugs While In Rehab?]
According to reports, Lindsay might have fallen off the wagon again.....
A source is quoted as saying: "Lindsay got called into the director's office on August 15 and was questioned about drugs. When ordered to take a drug test, she reluctantly complied but screamed and cursed at the medical director before storming out the room. She was told that if she couldn't conform to the programme she'd have to leave."
[...]She is said to have been caught having sex in a toilet cubicle with a male patient, and is reportedly frequently late to meetings and refuses to do any chores or menial tasks such as washing up.
Whether happening or not, Lohan's mother & father are back to fighting with each other about custody of Lindsay's siblings.....
Michael Lohan spoke to Perez Hilton about reports that he will visit Lindsay at the Cirque Lodge Treatment Center, telling the blogger that it is his right to see his daughter, despite Dina's interference. In the interview he goes on to accuse his ex of a number of shocking sins, including lying, using Lindsay for money, and keeping her "drunk," "degenerate," "rapist" boyfriend around the children. Michael, who has had legal trouble with substance abuse in the past adds, "I’ll give you a tape - a video confession - of someone who came up to me and said, ‘Michael, I know for a fact that Dina does cocaine because I delivered it to the house to her.’"
Lindsay's mom, Dina Lohan, responded by implying the world will be informed why Michael Lohan has multiple orders of protection filed against him......
[Britney Spears Is Being Investigated For Child Abuse?]
In what might be related to the many tabloid stories detailing Britney's erratic behavior, according to TMZ on Monday there was an emergency hearing.....
An unscheduled hearing was held.....at L.A. County Superior Court. Present -- Britney's lawyer, Dennis Wasser, K-Fed's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, and a lawyer from the Los Angeles County Counsel who is assigned to the dependency court.
We do not know the specifics of the allegations but we're told the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services is conducting an active investigation.
A follow-up hearing is scheduled for September 4th.
Meanwhile, preparations continue for her "comeback" performance at this year's MTV Video Music Awards. According to US Weekly.....
"She’s planning it to be a big comeback performance," says a Spears insider, who adds that the goal is to make it "shocking."
One early idea that was canned?
Performing "My Prerogative" amid a medley of hits, as images of exes Justin Timberlake, 26, and Kevin Federline, 29, and other gossip fodder flashed on a screen behind her.
However, Britney is still having problems with clothing, and realizing the need for pants or panties. Because God knows that if you're in the middle of a custody battle, this will impresses social workers & judges with respect to good judgment.....
[Movie & Television News]
Keanu Reeves To Star In Remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still: Why does Hollywood feel the need to remake "good" movies? Wouldn't it make more sense to put new spins on "bad" films that had a good idea, but were screwed up by its director or writers? I remember seeing Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho, which except for being in color & a few other changes is pretty much a shot for shot remake of Hitchcock's original. And while watching it, you wonder what was the point of spending $20 million to make a so-called "new" version, when anyone could just spend $4 to rent the 1960 film.
According to Variety, Keanu Reeves will star as Klaatu in the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still set to go into production late this year or early in 2008.....
Erwin Stoff is producing, with Scott Derrickson ("The Exorcism of Emily Rose") directing from a script by David Scarpa. Reeves' commitment puts the picture on track for a late fall or early 2008 production start. Studio sees it as a tentpole.
The Klaatu role was originated by Michael Rennie. The 1951 film's premise, a response to the rise of the Cold War after WWII, is being updated, and the film will use advances in visual effects.
It also returns "The Matrix" star to his strong suit in the sci-fi realm and puts him in back-to-back films for Fox. He just completed the David Ayer-directed "The Night Watchman," for Fox Searchlight/Regency about police corruption based on a story by James Ellroy. Forest Whitaker, Chris Evans and Hugh Laurie also star.
I hope it's good, but never underestimate the ability of producers, writers and directors to miss what made the originals great, and change it. I just know they're going to screw up Gort and have him as some CGI monstrosity with tentacles that rampages through Washington D.C. towards the end.
The Summer's Box Office Bombs: According to Box Office Mojo, year to date grosses are up 7.2% over last year, and 13.7% over 2005, with some of the big earneres being Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Transformers and Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix. However, according to Business Week, probably the biggest money losers this summer was Evan Almighty.....
Hollywood's biggest boo-boo this year might well be the Universal Pictures flick Evan Almighty. So what if it's closing in on $100 million at the box office. With a budget hovering close to $200 million and the kind of marketing muscle usually reserved for Steven Spielberg, the General Electric (GE)-owned studio (and its poor private equity investors) likely will lose big on the flick. The moral, Hollywood: Not all sequels are created equal. Without Jim Carrey, the Bruce Almighty star whose singular brand of manic humor made the first one work, it's better to walk away.
Oh, yes, the Carrey original only cost $85 million to make in 2003. It's Hollywood math at its worst. Take away the star (who almost certainly was asking too much to reprise his role as God-for-a-day), find a replacement (Steve Carell) with nowhere near the talent for the role. Load up the film with special effects (and loads of animals) and bloat the budget. Then pray the audience buys it all. Note to Hollywood: They didn't.
And even though it got some good critical reviews, Robert Deniro & Michelle Pfeiffer's Stardust.....
The film is also Hollywood at its worst: Sign on a bunch of big names, give them a totally incomprehensible script, and expect moviegoers to figure it out. Well, that didn't happen either. And the film, made for somewhere north of $70 million, is DOA with less than $20 million in ticket sales. Who green-lights this stuff? At least Paramount was smart enough to spread the risk among other investors, so they will share the loss.
Other disappointments for 2007.....
The Weinstein Co. threw $70 million at two of its favorite directors, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, letting them make a grainy, choppy, blood-splattered duo of films, a double feature that Harvey and brother Bob packaged together as a movie called Grindhouse. It was a nod to the B-movie houses the brothers recall from their youth. Surprise, Harvey—not many folks share your enthusiasm for three-hour movies featuring a motorcycle-riding girl with a machine gun serving as a leg (yes, that's right).
For that matter, moviegoers aren't exactly lapping up Hollywood's latest fetish: big-name actors in second-rate horror flicks. Warner Bros. (TWX) threw big bucks (more than $10 million) at Nicole Kidman to star in The Invasion, a truly lame remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Last seen, the film was staggering, brain-dead like some of its lobotomized extras, toward serious red ink.
Hilary Swank (The Reaping) and [Jim] Carrey (The Number 23) have had embarrassing turns this year starring in horror, thriller-type flicks that sold modestly, but far short of studio expectations with big names on the marquee.
Things To Be Learned In Movies: Over at Funny Emails, they have a humorous list of important life lessons one can learn from watching movies. Among the things films teach us.....
- All beds have special L-shaped top sheets that reach up to armpit level on a woman but only waist level on the man lying beside her.
- All grocery shopping bags contain at least one stick of French bread.
- The ventilation system of any building is a perfect hiding place. No one will ever think of looking for you in there and you can travel to any other part of the building without difficulty.
- The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window of any building in Paris.
- A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.
- One man shooting at 20 men has a better chance of killing them all than 20 men firing at one.
- All single women have a cat.
- A single match will be sufficient to light up a room the size of a football stadium.
- Medieval peasants had perfect teeth.
Movie Trailers:
Other stories making the rounds.....
[Gratuitous Links & Pics]
Other News & Clips
[How to unlock an iPhone to work with something other than AT&T]
[Jessica Alba holds grudges forever]
[Amy Winehouse’s in-laws call for boycott]
[Leona Helmsley left $12 million to her dog 'Trouble']
[Bridget Moynahan decides to leave the "Brady" out of her son's name]
[DMX joins the Michael Vick School of dog care]
[Madonna’s adoption going forward]
[Angelina Jolie goes to Iraq]
[The Hogan Family lawyers up after crash]
[Miss South Carolina’s Second Chance]
[Justin & Jessica’s Romantic Stroll]
[Fergie blowing chunks at the Minnesota State Fair?]
[Cameron Diaz & Bradley Cooper?]
[Luke MacFarlane Steps Out with Wentworth Miller]
[Jim Carey and Jenny McCarthy's Romantic Beach Hair]
The Guys
[James McAvoy @ The Venice Film Festival]
[John Mayer's New Look]
[Zahara Takes Brad Dad Out For Ice Cream & Fun]
[Ryan Reynolds Revs His Scarlett Engine]
[Ashton Kutcher Fashonista?]
[Gymnast Nick Beyeler's Calender shoot]
[Adrian Grenier Is Manjoyment Two Ways]
The Ladies
[Lindsay Lohan is Maxim's cover girl]
[Italian TV personality Giorgia Palmas]
[Nell McAndrew in lingerie]
[Paris Hilton Topless In GQ Magazine]
[A Summer Altice Picture Moment]
[Jennifer Aniston In A Bikini]
[Lauren Pope sexs it up]
[A Grumpy Moment with Tera Patrick]
[Emily Scott + bikinis or lack thereof]
[43-Year-Old Elle Macpherson with her big ass board]
[Don't You Want To "Touch" Alyssa Milano?]