The Hot Blog Archive for September, 2005
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The only way a Mostly Martha remake works with Catherine Zeta Jones is if she flip roles and plays the rauccous, life-loving chef played by Sergio Catellitto and some guy like Daniel Craig, who is attractive but flawed, playing the Martha role of the put-upon owner/chef.
CZJ just can’t do the “woman who learns to smile” thing. But as the chef who has a lust for life so intense that it scares the conservative, scared “Martha,” she could win another Oscar.
Gossip Wrangling
So Page Six is now all after Steven Spielberg and has gone as far as printing a soft version of the spiked story of about a month ago, citing souces on Munich who are clearly and completely full of shit. There is no one who has actually worked with Spielberg who believes a word of the “maestro” story of a few days ago.
Bert Fields shut them up regarding the Cruise-related story the last time – and his aura probably explains why they pulled the punch a little on the story they did run – but Marvin Levy didn’t get into the mud with them.
My question is, “Why now?”
My best guess is that Munich, now just a week away from being finished production with no major effects shots to keep the film from being completed on schedule, is the Oscar front-runner right now and the tarnishing of Spielberg has begun in earnest.
There was another stupid Munich rumor being floated, which I will not repeat, by an “Oscar expert” who is a bit of a con artist, but which allegedly started with a top awards consultant.
This could be more backstage gamesmanship by Roger Friedman, still trying to pay Spielberg back from not screening War of the Worlds for him before everyone else when he was due to start his vacation. (Old whores have long memories.) It would not be an unusual occurance for a gossip who can’t run their story for political reasons dropping it into the Page Six inbox.
As far as I can tell, Page Six has done no additional work since “August, when PAGE SIX started researching this story.” It just became time to run it for whatever reason. And make no mistake, whether I have happened upon the correct one or not, there is always a reason why stories run or don’t run.
'Tis The F'ing Season
In the Four Seasons bar this afternoon (favored nations billing) –
Kate Bosworth
Cliff Collins
Larry Flynt
Catherine Keener
Johnny Knoxville
Bennett Miller
Sean Penn
Quentin Tarantino (and 7 hot brunettes)
Slow day.
Scary
Just saw two kids on The View who are having weight loss sugery. Both were about 25 -40 pounds overweight. Both were sitting next to parents who were built on the heavy side, so there was clear genetic predisposition.
Have we really gotten to the point where dropping 30 pounds is about surgery and not diet & exercise… especially when these kids are never going to be thin by the magazine cover standard, but can only hope not to have fat rolling over their belts?
First Look At AICN In Weeks…
So… has anyone seen a negative review of Elizabethtown on that site?
I don’t want to cast aspirsions without cause. And since I could not find a single person in Toronto who liked the film, I am curious… did the e-mail break down or did AICN treat this Paramount film with an even hand?
Just Like Anti-Piracy
I was just going to through the Just Like Heaven CD onto my iPod when the CD kept me from doing so. There is some sort of system on the CD that allows you to play, but not download. And if you go into the folder for the CD, the individual songs are part of a file, not individual songs.
Interesting.
This was a preview CD, so maybe it is just on this. They sent a regular CD as well, which I gave to my neice this afternoon. Maybe I need to get it back to try it. Or maybe I can just live without Bowling For Soup’s version of Ghostbusters, but I would like to have it pop up on shuffle now and again.
Is It Cash Or Is It Memorex?
I had the oddest experience today. (Well, I have the oddest experiences every day, but…)
Inspired by Walk The Line, I bought a CD set in Toronto called “The Essential Johnny Cash.” Not only did I want to listen to Cash’s stuff after hearing Joaquin & Reese, but on this compilation there were some of the duets between Johnny & June that are in the movie. Cool.
So I listened.
And damned if the film version of the dou felt more energetic and alive than the CD version of the real McCoys. Of course, the versions on film are representations of live performances and the CD has the boundaries of a recording. And T-Bone Burnett is a brilliant producer. But it was still a creepy feeling.
The other oddity is that June sang in quite a different range than Reese does.
Even a standard like Ring of Fire now has the stamp of the movie in my memory… Phoenix’s performance as he sings the song with all the weight of the world on him overwhelms the reality of the great man himself.
It is interesting how this film continues to grow on me.
A Little More Box Office For Sunday
Not a whole lot more worth adding. Penguins passed $70 million. Wedding Crashers seems to have passed Charlie & The Chocolate Factory and will take down Batman Begins this week. And Emily Rose
52 Comments »Early (& Minor) Box Office Analysis
The opening day for Just Like Heaven is about two and a half times smaller that the opening day for her September smash hit, Sweet Home Alabama, three years ago. The film will be #1 for the weekend, but it
17 Comments »If Anyone Is Still Visiting…
The Hot Blog will return to speed over the weekend… but for now, here is an open space to start your own discussions.
Be nice to one another, please.
Early Box Office Analysis
The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which the Friday estimate is actually a little high for, will be Sony
24 Comments »It took a long while…
But Jessica Sharzer’s excellent Sundance entry of 2004 finally arrives… on Showtime and Lifetime.
8 Comments »Great Idea!
Ratings for The WB were off 28% last season…
I guess the network should just send their line-up direct to DVD.
Reviews
Walk The Line, Breakfast On Pluto & Brokeback Mountain… all on The Festival Blog…
17 Comments »