Saturday, August 16, 2008
For Your Olympic Consideration
10:50AM Mark Graham | · Any chance you happened to catch the kayaking event during the Olympics earlier today? We’re not sure why paddling down a Lazy River that exists entirely within the confines of the Bird’s Nest is an Olympic sport, especially after seeing this video of a man who can jump on eggs without breaking them. Face it, not even Michael Phelps could pull that off. [YouTube via AOTS] · For those of you desperate for a Bret & Jermaine fix while awaiting Season Two of Flight Of The Conchords, their new music video for “Ladies Of The World” ought to suffice. [MySpace] · Cinephiles rejoice! Criterion will be releasing Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket on DVD and Blu-Ray in November. [Criterion via Skeet On Mischa] · Janeane Garofalo and SNL’s breakout rookie Casey Wilson are doing a shot-by-shot remake of Tango & Cash. We’re not exactly sure why, but we sure hope they keep it up. [CC Insider] · Twilight will take that pre-Thanksgiving slot that Harry Potter just vacated, thankyouverymuch. [Variety] More »
Fox News Blames Daniel Radcliffe’s Magic Wand for ‘Harry Potter’ Delay
10:35AM Defamer Hollywood | Won’t anybody listen to the “content kings” over at Warner Bros.? Despite the fact that they actually have plausible reasons for bumping Harry Potter to next year — i.e the writers’ strike had left them with a summer 2009 slate that lacked a single tentpole release besides Terminator: Salvation — tongues are clucking that there simply must be ulterior motives at play. The latest to toss out a conspiracy theory is daffy Fox News columnist Roger Friedman, who puts the blame squarely on Daniel Radcliffe’s barely legal shoulders:
Michael Scott to Crack Awkward Racial Joke Following Darryl’s Drug Bust
10:20AM Defamer Hollywood | Though dating Kelly Kapoor could drive any man to self-medicate, never did we think that Darryl from The Office had quite as extensive a stash as his portrayer, Craig Robinson, has been revealed to possess. According to TMZ, Robinson was busted late last month for driving under the influence, and what officers found led them to charge him with two felonies: More »
Ed McMahon’s Realtor Makes Donald Trump An Offer He Can’t Refuse
9:50AM STV | Cheers to Ed McMahon, whose week started with more miserable news about lawsuits and money owed but ends with word that he’s managed at least one solution: He’s found a buyer for his Beverly Hills manse, which was mere weeks away from foreclosure after the beleaguered 85-year-old legend defaulted on $4.8 million in loans with Countrywide. Alas, the inevitable catch: The buyer is Donald Trump, who boasted to the LA Times about his “honor” in leasing the home back to McMahon, adding, “When I was at the Wharton School of Business, I’d watch him every night. How could this happen?” More »
TMZ Thinks That M. Night Shyamalan ‘Sucks’
9:20AM Mark Graham | Welcome to another installment of Defamer’s Dirt Sandwich, our weekly romp through the perilous wilderness of tabloid television. Each week, we task Molly McAleer with culling through close to a dozen hours of television to bring you, the loyal Defamer reader, the best two minutes of hilarious hyperbole that came across the airwaves. This week’s episode does not disappoint, as diverse topics like Bernie Mac’s death, Tropic Thunder’s RetardGate and Manoj Night Shyamalan’s public perception woes are covered. So while we’ve got you, why don’t you take a bite and enjoy all the savory salaciousness you can handle. Bon appetit! More »
8:50AM Defamer Hollywood | Fun and Games: And now, another installment of “You Win One, You Lose One” (NBC Thursday night edition)! Win: 30 Rock’s Tina Fey and The Office star Steve Carell are teaming up to play a married couple in the big-screen comedy Date Night! Lose: It’s being directed by the hacky Shawn Levy, who made Big Fat Liar and Cheaper by the Dozen. Win: Fey’s costar Alec Baldwin is in talks to romance Meryl Streep in an untitled comedy… Lose: …written and directed by Nancy Meyers, so it will no doubt be a cream-coloured, two-hour-plus slog that looks like it came straight out of a Lands’ End catalog. Thanks for playing! [Variety] More »
8:25AM STV | Ashton Kutcher, Margaret Killer? Make what you will of the news that playwright/filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan is rewriting an Ashton Kutcher comedy — on one hand Lonergan has Oscar nominations for both script-doctoring Gangs of New York and guiding his fussy You Can Count on Me through the indie trenches, while on the other we hear he’s been cooped up in an editing room, fighting off Fox Searchlight for nearly two years over his troubled Anna Paquin/Matt Damon (among many others) drama Margaret. We’d like to think his taste will light the way on Like Father, which will star Kutcher as a man whose animosity toward his father abates as they “coincidentally” raise infant sons and “are forced to go through the fatherhood experience together.” And maybe it’ll be great, but we trust our first impression here more than we necessarily trust Lonergan: With work like this holding him over, don’t be surprised if his own baby Margaret never sees the light of day. [Variety] More »
Even Felicity Huffman Has Gotten Into Madonna’s Underwear
7:00AM Defamer Hollywood | Though a lot of people have known Madonna intimately, few may have gotten as close to her as Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman. Picked to take over the pop superstar’s acting role in the 1998 David Mamet play Speed-the-Plow, Huffman decided to inhabit Madonna’s leftovers in a very unorthodox way. Says People: More »
Wherein We Finally Attempt to Comprehend The Jonas Brothers
6:30AM STV | Look, we’re old. Not “old” old, but more like “the Olympics were so much better in Los Angeles” old. And definitely not “Beatlemania” old, but old enough to wonder if the Jonas Brothers phenomenon is anything like what we’ve heard about Beatlemania. We honestly don’t know — before today we’d never listened to a Jonas Brothers song, we’ve never seen them perform, we don’t even know which is which, only that the moppiest-headed one occasionally receives photos of Miley Cyrus eating her skivvies. More »
