Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis: "Friends with benefits?" Kelso and Jackie "took a mini-vacation together" to Carpinteria. They stopped at a roadside stand where "Mila bought sunflowers and blueberries," then had sushi for lunch. "They hadn't seen each other for years" but got back in touch during a That 70's Show reunion segment for Fox's 25th anniversary special. "He's so not her type." And as for Ashton's famous wandering eye? "Mila wouldn't stand for that kind of stuff. She's a strong, smart girl."
Michelle Williams and Jason Segel: "No more blue valentines for Michelle Williams! The demure three-time Oscar nominee has fallen for longtime pal Jason Segel." The demure Jason Segel, you mean. "They are smitten and very serious." Despite living on opposite coasts, they've been spotted having dinner on both. "He put his arm around her and made her laugh as they walked."
Pregnant Jessica Simpson Is the Best Quote Machine:
"Oh, my God, y'all. I just had a daydream that my vagina ate a bag of Skittles!"
"I made 'slutty' brownies today!"
"The average person expels gas 15 times each day. The average pregnant woman farts 15 times that!"
"It's time for my big girl panties and sleeping bra!"
"I feel like I have a bowling ball sitting on my hoo-ha. Apparently I have a lot of amniotic fluid, so whenever my water breaks, it will be like a fire hydrant!"
"I just started calling myself Swamp Ass. Like, I have 'swamp ass' right now. I had major swamp ass because I was wearing these Spanx to hold in my gut. It's like the bayou up in that region."
Oscar predictors like to complain that the ludicrous number of movie awards handed out in December and January make the Academy Awards themselves too predictable, but let’s give credit where it’s due: This year, critics helped to create a remarkably diverse field of candidates—eleven different actors have won prizes so far. So there’s really no excuse for Oscar voters to resort to autopilot nominations. But when have Oscar voters ever needed an excuse?
Just before today’s 5:30 a.m. press event announcing the Golden Globe nominations, a Hollywood Foreign Press Association arranger wearily droned into the microphone, “We’re three minutes away. Can we get talent back in the room, please?” Dude, it’s the Globes: Talent was never in the room. And talent, taste, even the movies themselves seemed to have little to do with the relentless blare of nomination announcements — the Broadcast Film Critics Association Critic’s Choice nominations on Tuesday, the Screen Actors Guild nominations on Wednesday, the Globes this morning — that made every day feel like Christmas. That is, if what was under the tree included several empty boxes and a couple of immaculately wrapped turds.
There are many ways of looking at a Best Actor Oscar race. You can ask yourself who gave the year’s strongest performances. You can think about who’s overdue, who’s surprising, who works the circuit effectively, who exceeds expectations, who elevates his movie the most by his presence in it. But ultimately, the question that decides the nominations is always this one: Who do actors want to vote for?
This year, that may be tough to answer, since Best Actor is shaping up to be an extremely unusual race. In Column A, we have three Goliaths: George Clooney for The Descendants, Leonardo DiCaprio for J. Edgar, and Brad Pitt for Moneyball. And in Column B, we have a whole bunch of Davids. The problem for the Davids is that they’re not Goliaths. The problem for the Goliaths is that voting for Davids is usually a lot more fun.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn are in talks for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s The Revenant. DiCaprio would play an 1820s frontiersman who, after being mauled by a bear on an expedition, hires two guys to transport him back from the wilderness; those two guys rob him and leave him for dead, and DiCaprio seeks out some solid revenge. Penn is in talks to play one of the two guys and being the ever-innovative thespian that he is, though, he's also looking into what it would take to play the bear. Grade: A- [Deadline]
We’ve all seen it happen in awards show after awards show. Some grizzled veteran or much-nominated actress finally wins an Oscar, a Grammy, a Tony, after years of disappointment — for work that’s maybe just a leeeeeetle bit subpar. It’s why Kate Winslet won an Oscar for The Reader, not Eternal Sunshine. It’s why Mary Louise Wilson won a Tony for Grey Gardens, not Cabaret. It’s why Susan Lucci won an Emmy for the 29th season of All My Children, not the previous 28.
Mark Wahlberg is in talks to reteam with his Contraband director, Baltasar Kormakur, for 2 Guns, which is working off a script originally drafted by Blake Masters and rewritten by David O. Russell. It follows a DEA agent and an undercover naval intelligence officer who are both stealing mob money and unwittingly investigating one another. That makes it sound a little like The Departed, which also starred Wahlberg. If Marky’s going to be cribbing off his own movies, can he do Fear next? Grade: B [Showblitz]
Warner Bros. is developing Don Winslow’s 1950s-set novel Satori for Leonardo DiCaprio to star in. He’d play Nicholai Hel, a Westerner raised in Japan and mentored by a martial arts expert/military general. Things get complicated when Hel kills a guy that would have targeted the general as a war criminal, is thrown in prison for three years, and is freed by the CIA in exchange for killing the Soviet commissioner to China. Later, he meets a beautiful French woman, of course. Oh, also, he’s a master at Go, the chess-like Japanese board game. The potential “Leo squinting” meter reading is off the charts! Grade: A- [Deadline]
You thought the world was turned off forever by TV shows based on slight Internet concepts after $#*! My Dad Says? You thought wrong! Texts From Last Night — the stockpile of drunken and otherwise addled party texts — will have its third run through the network adaptation process, with Silvio Horta (Ugly Betty) giving it a whirl for Happy Madison and Sony Pictures TV. What could possibly go wrong? Grade: D [Deadline]
Val Kilmer has joined the cast of The Goats, an adaptation of Brock Cole’s young-adult novel that is being directed by D.J. Caruso (Eagle Eye). Chandler Canterbury and Annalise Basso star as kids at a summer camp who get pranked and then stranded on Goat Island. Val Kilmer plays king of Goat Island a sheriff. Grade: B [Showblitz]
Pink has joined the cast of Thanks for Sharing, an ensemble drama about recovering sex addicts also starring Patrick Fugit, Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim Robbins, and Josh Gad. And, somewhere, 50 Cent is all like, “Fall back, Pink. Fall back.” Grade: B- [Showblitz]
Rose McGowan is starring in the romantic thriller Napa as a veteran of the Afghan War who returns to her hometown to work as the sheriff. Sorry, this is a "thriller"? How gnarly do the streets of Napa get? Grade: C [HR]
Elizabeth Shue and Abigail Spencer have joined Curtis Hanson’s surfing drama Of Men and Mavericks. The movie revolves around the true story of Jay Moriarty, a champion surfer who died in a diving accident at 22. Shue will play Moriarty’s mother; Spencer plays the wife of Moriarty’s mentor Frosty Hesson, who is being played by Gerard Butler. That’s pretty excellent casting, as we’ve long felt Gerard Butler looked like a "Frosty." Grade: B [HR]
Leonardo DiCaprio will star in a remake of The Gambler directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan, making it a reunion for the Departed principals. The original is from 1974, was written by James Toback, and starred James Caan as a gambling-addicted English professor. Forget the involvement of Scorsese and Monahan, and the gritty source material for a second: Dicaprio playing a professor? We’re in. Grade: A [Deadline]
Beyoncé's just-announced pregnancy means Clint Eastwood's remake of A Star Is Born — which she's, um, starring in — will be pushed back from its planned February 2012 start date to a later one, which is maybe a good thing because there's no male lead yet attached (DiCaprio was Clint's first choice but turned it down). Also: Ahhhhh! Beyoncé's pregnant! Grade: A (for pregnancy) [Deadline]
Leonardo DiCaprio is circling a lead role in Todd Field's (In the Bedroom, Little Children) The Creed of Violence, a Western based on the recent book by Boston Teran about a criminal who smuggles weapons into Mexico in 1910 but ends up in the custody of a government agent who turns out to be his son (DiCaprio hasn't yet decided between the two characters). Creed has been in development at Universal for years, but DiCaprio's interest could put it back on the fast track. Then again, maybe the failure of Cowboys and Aliens over the weekend means Universal will cool it on Westerns for a while. Grade: A- ["24 Frames"/LAT]
Woody Allen, currently enjoying his biggest-ever success with Midnight in Paris, will open up in a new documentary to air this November on PBS. Produced by Robert Weide (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Seriously Funny: The Comic Art of Woody Allen will feature interviews and footage of the director visiting his old Brooklyn neighborhood. Grade: B+ ["Show Tracker"/LAT]
