Betty White Confirmed for SNL
Betty White gained a lot of attention when she starred in a Snickers ad during the Super Bowl, enough that a Facebook page titled “Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!” was created and has almost 500,000 fans. The 88 year-old funny lady has confirmed that she will be on “Saturday Night Live” but won’t say whether she’ll just be starring or hosting the show. Entertainment Weekly rumoured that she might appear on a special ‘Women of Comedy’ episode with former “SNL” cast members Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Molly Shannon but Lorne Michaels, the executive producer of the show, has denied this. Besides the commercial during the Super Bowl, Betty White last starred in “The Proposal” with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. No word on when the “Saturday Night Live” episode will air.
Sean Hayes Opens Up About Sexuality
Sean Hayes, best known for playing Jack on “Will & Grace” for eight years, has just come out about being gay. The 39 year-old, who played the flamboyantly gay Jack McFarland, graced the cover of The Advocate, a gay and lesbian magazine, and says in an article "I am who I am. I was never in, as they say. Never. I believe that nobody owes anything to anybody. You are your authentic self to whom and when you choose to be, and if you don't know somebody, then why would you explain to them how you live your life?" Hayes is in a relationship but won’t divulge anymore than that "I spend time with a special someone in my life," he said. "That's it. That's all I need. I don't need events. I don't do a lot. I live my life like an 85-year-old man. I'm just quiet. It's fantastic." Hayes will next be seen on Broadway starring alongside Kristin Chenoweth in the musical “Promises, Promises” opening his spring.
Lenny Kravitz to Star in Selma
While on the red carpet at the Oscars on Sunday night, “Precious” star Lenny Kravitz told Ryan Seacrest that he would be reuniting with “Precious” director Lee Daniels for his next film called “Selma”. “Selma” is the story of the famous Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 which were held in an effort to get voting rights for African Americans and ultimately helped sway the public on civil rights overall. Already cast in the film are Robert De Niro and Hugh Jackman. De Niro will play Governor George Wallace and Jackman is rumoured to be playing a minister named James Reeb who is beaten to death during the marches. Kravitz has signed on as the civil rights activist Andrew Young. Kravitz’s minor role in “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire” was his first ever acting role. Filming for “Selma” is set to begin in May. No release date has been set yet.
And the Winner Is...
The 82nd annual Academy Awards were held Sunday night at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. “The Hurt Locker” and “Avatar” lead the nominations, each with nine, but “The Hurt Locker” took home the top honours of Best Picture and Best Director Kathryn Bigelow. Bigelow made Oscar history by being the first female Best Director winner ever. The Iraqi war drama starring best actor nominee Jeremy Renner also took home awards for film editing, sound editing, sound mixing, and best original screenplay. “Avatar” won for best art direction, cinematography and visual effects. There weren’t many surprises in the acting categories with the predicted winners taking home their statues. Jeff Bridges won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as an alcoholic country singer in “Crazy Heart”. Sandra Bullock who’s already won a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild for her role in “The Blind Side” accepted her first ever Oscar with humour saying “Did I really earn this, or did I wear you all down?" She went on to graciously thank all the other Best Actress nominees: Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe, and Meryl Streep. She also thanked her late mother who died of cancer in 2000 "She said to be an artist; you had to practice every day.” She also thanked her mother for "reminding her daughters that there's no race, no religion, no class system, no color, no sexual orientation that makes us better than anyone else. We are all deserving of love." The Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards went to Christoph Waltz for “Inglorious Basterds” and Mo’Nique for “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire”. “Up” won the Best Animated Film award as well as Best Original score. The Best Documentary feature went to “The Cove”, a film about the slaughtering of dolphins in Japan and the serious harm it’s causing both people and the dolphins. The Academy Awards was hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin who kept the show light and funny and Martin closed the evening by saying "The show is so long. Avatar now takes place in the future."
Alice in Wonderland Breaks Records
Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” starring Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter), Helena Bonham Carter (Red Queen), Anne Hathaway (White Queen) and newcomer Mia Wasikowska (Alice) opened in top spot this weekend. Not only did it lead the box office with $116.3 million, it broke records for biggest opening in March, biggest opening ever for a Tim Burton movie, biggest non-sequel release of all time, and the biggest 3-D release ever! Crime drama “Brooklyn’s Finest”, also released this weekend, took second spot with $13.5 million. Slipping to third this weekend was the Leonardo DiCaprio starrer “Shutter Island”. In its second week the psychological thriller from director Martin Scorsese grossed $13.3 million. In fourth, in its second week, was crime comedy “Cop Out” which earned $9.1 million. Finally, still hanging on to the top five after 12 weeks, was James Cameron’s “Avatar” which added another $7.7 million to its total now at $720.2 million domestically.
Amanda Seyfried for Little Red Riding Hood Adaptation
While attending the Academy Awards on Sunday night, where she presented the Best Song award with Miley Cyrus, Amanda Seyfried confirmed the rumours that she is set to star in “The Girl With the Red Riding Hood” from “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke. The film is an adaptation of the “Little Red Riding Hood” story but with a gothic twist. The script is written by David Leslie Johnson and will be produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way banner. Amanda Seyfried can currently be seen alongside Channing Tatum in “Dear John” and recently completed filming “Letter to Juliet” which is due out in May.
Benicio Del Toro to Play Real Life FBI Agent in Making Jack Falcone
The story of real-life FBI undercover agent Jack Garcia is being brought to the big screen with Benicio Del Toro playing the lead role in “Making Jack Falcone”. Garcia was extremely successful at what he did, bringing down 39 members of New York’s Gambino crime family. He travelled wherever needed going from New York to Miami where he pretended to be a New York capo in a sting against crooked cops, to Atlantic City where he posed as a drug dealer. Considering his size, 6’4”, 390 pounds, he was very good at becoming whoever he needed to be without arising suspicion. Del Toro will reunite with the director and the writer of “Che” for this movie. Steven Soderbergh will direct the crime drama and Peter Buchman will write the script. Del Toro can currently be seen in “The Wolfman” and recently completed filming “Somewhere”, Sofia Coppola’s latest film.
Ryan Gosling is Steve Carell’s New Best Friend
According to Variety Ryan Gosling is set to star in an untitled comedy from the writers of “Bad Santa”, John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. The duo will direct the movie which already has Steve Carell on board to star as a father whose life falls apart as he’s divorcing his wife and trying to salvage a relationship with his children. Gosling will play the father’s best friend. The script is written by Dan Fogelman with Denise Di Novi producing with Charlie Hartsock and Vance DeGeneres executive producing. Gosling can next be seen starring alongside Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”.
Robert De Niro Heads to Dark Fields
Robert De Niro has picked up his next role and is set to star opposite Bradley Cooper in the thriller “Dark Fields”. Cooper will play an unsuccessful New York writer named Eddie who comes across a designer drug that gives him extreme intelligence and success. De Niro will play a brilliant financial mogul who begins pursuing Eddie. Neil Burger (“The Illusionist”) will direct the film which is based on a novel by Alan Glynn with a script written by Leslie Dixon (“Hairspray”, “Pay It Forward”). Filming is set to begin in May in Philadelphia.
Burt Reynolds Undergoes Major Heart Surgery
Burt Reynolds is at his home in Florida recovering from quintuple bypass surgery which he had last week according to Entertainment Tonight. The 74 year-old actor is being monitored by 24-hour in home nursing care. Reynolds’ rep Erik Kritzer says "Mr. Reynolds has been released from a hospital in Florida in which he had a planned bypass operation. He wants to thank everyone for their good wishes and states that he has a great motor with brand new pipes and he is feeling great. Doctors plan on a speedy recovery.” Kritzer adds “All reports that are implying he was rushed to a hospital are completely untrue, as he has had this operation scheduled for over a month." This isn’t the first health issue that Reynolds has had to deal with; following back surgery he became addicted to prescription medication and checked himself into rehab in 2009 to take care of the problem.
Gilligan’s Island Being Made into a Movie
According to Variety, the hit TV show that aired from 1964 to 1967 is now being made into a movie at Warner Bros. “Gilligan’s Island” centered on seven castaways including two crew members, a millionaire couple, a professor, a movie star and a girl next door type who end up shipwrecked on an uninhabited island in the Pacific. No director or actors have signed on for the movie yet but original theme song writer and show producer Sherwood Schwartz is determined to get the ball rolling. He will be executive producing with his son Lloyd. Charles Roven (“The Dark Knight”, “Batman Begins”, “The International”) and Richard Suckle (“The International, “Scooby-Doo”, “Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed”) have signed on to produce for the production company Atlas Entertainment. Roven said "The characters are so good. We think it's going to be a great story to transport these cultural icons to the modern day." 98 episodes of “Gilligan’s Island” were first made in black and white but later aired in colour. The show was well liked but gained in popularity after years of syndication.
Neil Patrick Harris Set to Star in The Smurfs
Neil Patrick Harris has signed on to star in the big screen adaptation of “The Smurfs”. The movie will be a combination of live-action and animation. Harris won’t be voicing a character but will play the lead live-action character. “The Smurfs” characters were created in 1958 and originally called “Les Schtroumpfs” in French. The little blue people were created for a Belgian series of comic books. These characters turned into a popular children’s TV series which aired from 1981-90. Filming for “The Smurfs” movie is set to begin filming in April while Harris is on a break from filming his TV series “How I Met Your Mother”. The film is set for release in July of 2011.
Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz Back Together
Ex-couple Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz are getting back together to star in “Bad Teacher”, a film about a high school teacher (Diaz), who after being dumped decides to go after a colleague’s boyfriend (Timberlake). Molly Shannon and Jason Segel are also set to star in the comedy. “Bad Teacher” is being directed by Jake Kasdan and is set to begin filming in Los Angeles in April. Diaz, 37, and Timberlake, 29, broke up in 2007 after dating for four years. Timberlake is currently dating “Valentine’s Day” star Jessica Biel.
Joseph Gordon-Lewitt Taking Over for James McAvoy in Cancer Comedy
James McAvoy has backed out of starring in the untitled cancer comedy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is stepping in. According to McAvoy’s rep he’s backing out "due to unrelated circumstances beyond his control." The film is an autobiographical story of a man dealing with cancer. Seth Rogen will star opposite Gordon-Levitt and will also co-produce the movie with Evan Goldberg and Ben Karlin. Rogen said of the circumstances "It's incredibly unfortunate that circumstances outside of everyone's control have taken James away from the project, but, with James's blessing, we were able to have Joseph step in to take on the role of Adam. We all look forward to working with James in the future." Filming is set to begin on Monday in Vancouver. Gordon-Levitt last starred in “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” and recently finished filming “Inception” which is due out in July.
Tiger Woods Back Home Again
Tiger Woods is back home in Florida after he and his wife spent a week in family counselling in Arizona. Woods, 34, apologized publically last month for his infidelities which were all revealed after he crashed his SUV on Thanksgiving. Woods had numerous affairs with countless women over his five year marriage to Elin Nordegren and it’s still unknown whether the couple will get back together. They have two children together, daughter Sam, 2, and son Charlie, 1. Woods said that he didn’t publically apologize to his wife "As Elin pointed out to me, my real apology to her will come not in the form of words; it will come from my behaviour over time. We have a lot to discuss; however, what we say to each other will remain between the two of us." No word on when/if Woods will be making his return to golfing but he has been spotted swinging the clubs and working out so it may happen sooner rather than later.
