Image Credit: Philippe AntonelloThe last time Mel Gibson found himself in the middle of a media firestorm — i.e. when he made sexist and antisemitic comments during his D.U.I. arrest in Malibu — Christian leaders rushed to his defense. But this time, the people who so fervently supported him and helped turn The Passion of the Christ (pictured) into the highest-grossing independent film of all time have remained silent for the most part. Such prominent Gibson defenders as James Dobson Focus on the Family (which Dobson founded, but no longer runs), and the evangelical group Promise Keepers had issued no statements regarding the five leaked recordings of Gibson purportedly ranting at his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. Following the actor’s 2006 outburst, Dobson released a statement saying, “Mel has apologized profusely for this incident, and there the matter should rest.” At the time of this posting, Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Promise Keepers had not responded to EW’s request for comment.
Only Catholic League president Bill Donohue has publicly commented on the matter, telling Yahoo’s The Upshot Blog: READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: MTVJust when I was starting to move on with my life, The Hills pulls me back in. After a much buzzed-about series finale on Tuesday, which led fans to believe the entire six seasons of the series was fake, one cast member is dispelling possible conclusions and defending the reality of the show. Today, Lo Bosworth posted this message to fans on her website:
TWIST! Tuesday night, viewers said in disappointed shock, “OMG was ‘The Hills’ really fake all this time?” I mean, that’s what you guys have been saying forever, right? Ha ha. Don’t worry. It wasn’t fake. I have never shot any ‘Hills’ scenes on a stage of any kind.
To retract the closure we gained from finale, or what some may call, “Okay, I no longer have to feel stupid for thinking this is real,” would be an insult to fans. But Lo’s explanation also continues what the series finale was so brilliant in doing: getting people to talk about The Hills more than anyone has in the last year. But how much is too much? When will we reach The Hills‘ saturation point? Sure the finale was impressive (some of you even called it brilliant), but it’s over. There are other, more important, respectable shows to think about. Right?
What do you think, PopWatchers? Is this just an attempt to comfort disappointed fans? Will we ever know if The Hills was real or fake? And do we care?
Image Credit: Janet Mayer/PR PhotosModern Family actress (and Emmy nominee) Julie Bowen has nabbed roles in two films. According to Variety, she’ll play Kevin Spacey’s wife in the star-packed comedy Horrible Bosses, which also features Jason Bateman, Jamie Foxx, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Aniston, and Jason Sudeikis. She’ll then take on the role of “a high-strung wedding planner” in Jumping the Broom, which The Hollywood Reporter says revolves around “two black families from opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum meeting for the first time during a weekend wedding in Martha’s Vineyard.” That ensemble includes Precious‘ Paula Patton and Avatar‘s Laz Alonso as the happy couple, and Angela Bassett as the mother of the bride.
Could Bowen be about to corner the market on “high-strung” females? Is it that angular jaw that makes her playing tense so convincing? Her enunciation? The crispness she radiates when wearing a button-down shirt with her hair up? What’s special about Bowen on Modern Family is that no matter how wound up she gets, no matter how many daggers she shoots from eyes, I still want to be Claire’s friend. That’s a gift.
Who’s your favorite actress playing high-strung?
When Piranha 3-D director Alexandre Aja was told that a scene in his film — featuring a wet t-shirt contest gone gory — was too graphic for Comic-Con, he didn’t bend or edit it in order to make the California conference. Instead, The New York Times reports, he decided to take his business elsewhere. His panel discussion and movie debut will now be held at 10 p.m. this Thursday at the UA Horton Plaza, which isn’t too far from the San Diego Convention Center where Comic-Con is held.
“It doesn’t make sense to go to an event like Comic-Con and not show what the movie is,” said Aja. “It’s frustrating because I was so excited to show this at Comic-Con. I made the movie for that crowd.” He might not reach the audience Comic-Con could secure, but one could appreciate the fact that Aja’s standing by his work. But the real question is: What can Joe Francis enjoy now at Comic-Con? And Phillip Litt?!
What do you think, PopWatchers? Should he have changed his clip?
On last night’s Rachel Maddow Show, during a segment called “Attention COLON Deficit Disorder,” Rachel boldly attempted to create her own graphic with huge pieces of red felt and failed miserably. The video is truly hilarious in a “wait a minute, I thought this was 2010″ way; you can watch it after the jump.
My right-brained self seriously loves that she went analog for this, but the evil/reasonable Annie fairydevil over my left shoulder is ruining the party, as usual. “I mean…how easy would it have been to just have the graphics department raise a bar?” she is wondering. Shut up, bitch!
Have you ever botched a presentation this badly? [TV Squad]
Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Sylvain Gaboury/PR Photos; Bob Charlotte/PR Photos; Janet Mayer/PR PhotosBig-time movie actresses have been defecting to television for years now for one reason: because it offers juicier female roles. See: Glenn Close, Mary Louise Parker, Holly Hunter, Toni Collette, Kyra Sedgwick, Sally Field, Jada Pinkett Smith, Kathy Bates, Sissy Spacek, and, in the near future, Laura Linney (Showtime’s The Big C, premiering next month) and Diane Keaton (HBO’s Tilda, now in the pilot stages). The exodus first began with Sedgwick, Close, and Hunter thanks to sheer mathematics: An astronomical increase in original series on cable meant more roles, period, so chances were some of them would be interesting women. And established actresses, bored with the limited girlfriend-mom-grandma career trajectory in movies, gravitated to the antiheroines — drug-dealing moms, boozing cops, schizophrenics — that TV scripts were featuring. For actresses, especially those of a certain age (i.e. those lost in mom/grandma territory), the multi-dimensional ladies populating the small screen represented salvation. Essentially, Glenn Close signing on to star in Damages was as much about movies ignoring and insulting women for too long as it was about TV gaining respect as a medium.
Now that HBO has picked up the Dustin Hoffman pilot Luck to become a series, however, the current has officially shifted: Cable TV has arrived as a destination for the highest-caliber male actors as well. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Eric Charbonneau/Le Studio/Wireimage.comUgh, now there are five. You can spend nearly 30 minutes listening to five separate recordings of Mel Gibson purportedly raging against ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva on Radar Online. It’s almost like Radar isn’t even a proper noun anymore — this is literally the radar. “What’s on the Radar today? Another Mel Gibson tape, of course.”
Radar’s decision to release these one-by-one seems increasingly bizarre. (An editor for the site claims that the audio came from a third party, not Grigorieva herself.) It’s beginning to feel like a record company “dropping” albums. Vol. 1: The N Word, Vol. 2: A Time to Kill, Vol. 3: The Nanny Diaries, Vol. 4: Burning Down the House, and now Vol. 5: Gold Digger. I’m not trying to be flip but to make the point that this step-by-step rollout seems more like the work of a publicist for a mysterious entertainer. The saddest part is, if you’re still listening, fatigue is likely setting in, and the impact is lessening. The tapes are still in every way terrible, but due to the sheer repetition, they’re also becoming sort of mundane. You can’t help but become desensitized to something that happens every day. And unfortunately, the public’s chief reaction to these tapes is shifting from disbelief a couple days ago over the horrible content to disbelief today that there’s ANOTHER one???
When we asked yesterday if you’d listened to any of the tapes, 61 percent of you said “No, I’d like to avoid them.” Has a fifth tape changed that? Have your feelings toward the whole sordid mess changed after five separate tape releases?
Read more:
Fifth purported Mel Gibson tape online
Mel Gibson recordings: Have you listened?
Owen Gleiberman: Mel Gibson and the tale of the tape
Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett
Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis hop in a car to go on a trip to Los Angeles. That sounds like the start of a good joke, right? Actually, it’s the premise for the duo’s upcoming film Due Date, which just debuted its first trailer. Directed by Todd Phillips (of The Hangover fame), Galifianakis plays the familiar role of hilarious oddball, while Downey plays the straight man trying to make it to a hospital in time to witness his child’s birth. (Jamie Foxx also makes a quiet cameo in the trailer, playing Downey’s friend.) Jury’s out on which is the funnier prop: A baby named Carlos wearing sunglasses, or a dog named Sonny wearing a cone. Thoughts?
