just asking

Why Can’t Reese Witherspoon Get First Billing?

3:57AM Defamer Hollywood | Correct us if we’re wrong, but didn’t Reese Witherspoon, y’know, win an Oscar just a few years ago? We’re pretty sure she did, but you’d never know it from this poster for Four Christmases, the upcoming comedy she stars in with Vince Vaughn. Despite the fact that Vaughn fired UTA and his manager after the star vehicle Fred Claus opened to less than his first $20 million paycheck, the poster still gives him first billing over the Oscar-winning, A-list Witherspoon (and for another Christmas movie, no less!). To be fair, Witherspoon’s last film Rendition was a box-office bust, but she wasn’t top-billed on that, either: new beau Jake Gyllenhaal was, despite the fact that he’s not yet proven himself as a box office draw. After winning the industry’s highest award and proving her ability to single-handedly open a comedy with films like Legally Blonde and Sweet Home Alabama, what more does Witherspoon have to do to be called first in the billing block? More »

Is 20th Century Fox Already Cooling On M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Happening’?

12:03PM Mark Graham | There are two ways of looking at 20th Century Fox’s decision not to air an ad for The Happening during the Super Bowl last night (the trailer debuted online today). The first is that the company made a financially savvy decision by choosing not to blow $2.7 million dollars on a thirty-second advertisement (like all those other studios did). The other is that the studio is feeling a bit gunshy on the financial prospects of Night’s first film since the unmitigated disaster that was Lady In The Water. And as for which theory we think holds more water? We’re going with the latter. More »