Aging singer/actress Cher – still too cool for a surname – is in talks to play Catwoman opposite Christian Bale in the next installment of the Batman franchise. If the deal goes through, the gay icon will be skulking about Gotham with Johnny Depp, who's set to play The Riddler in the flick. It's the frailest and least intimidating cast of villains Batman's ever faced!
• A video of a video of Amy Winehouse doing drugs. Someone put too much effort into something everyone's seen before. [Yeeeah]
• Christopher Nolan hopes Cher can ruin the Batman franchise. [ICYDK]
• Some people still find Paris Hilton attractive. Why? [HT]
• This is actually quite frightening: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes stand next to each other in identical jeans. [DListed]
• Ryan Seacrest shatters America's dreams of a Britney Spears VMA comeback. [PS]
• The paparazzi are no longer interested in John Mayer. Poor thing — it must be devastating to lose all of your friends. [INO]
David Blaine, whose mission in life is to constantly top his own stupidity, has announced his next cry for attention: He will hang upside-down from a six-story highwire above Central Park for three days and two nights. During this time he must (obviously) sleep upside-down and will not be allowed to eat. Sounds fun. Oh, and this is going to be televised on national television Sept. 24 so everybody can join in the absurdity.
For those who will be in New York during this stunt, David wants you to stop by and say hello: "There are always some crazy things. I get flashed quite often. Luckily, mostly from girls." Yeah, luckily.
Later, Blaine plans to break the world record for sleep deprivation, which should be easier than his failed attempt at abstaining from being a tool.
Hey, Batman crazies, couldja find it in your fanboy hearts to stop loving this movie so much. At least not to the point in which you threaten the lives of film critics who review it negatively?
Critics who refused to swallow the red pill have been treated as enemy combatants. About.com's Jürgen Fauth and The House Next Door's Keith Uhlich … are two such critics. Neither of their reviews was intended to provoke, nor were they playing the contrarian — they simply didn't like the film. As of this writing there are 938 comments in response to these reviews. (Both at their sites as well as their links on Rotten Tomatoes.) Some go no deeper than Fag!; some are actually amusing - Keep your head in Little Women and Suffrage texts you pansy, but others are downright ugly. On Rotten Tomatoes, someone felt it would be beneficial to post as many personal details about Jürgen that they could find, while another likened his crime to Joan of Arc's:
This guy is a terd [sic], let him rot. Lets [sic] burn him at the stake!
The comments left for Keith are even more vile, particularly this one, which the author later claimed was written while channeling his inner Joker. Yikes. (All [sic]):
You know, some people have been so enraged by your little opinion piece that they want you to kill yourself. Please DON'T!!! You know why, because I am going to have so much fun killing you myself! I promise, it WON'T be painless. I am going to carve a smile in your face. And then I am going to carve you stomach. And you know why? Because i just want my phone call. You're my bitch now! I am going to track you down through your IP address and then I am going to f@#%!%* kill you!!!
LA Times writer Eric P. Lucas has had enough of the Heath Ledger hype and wrote a strongly-worded article to argue otherwise. Except instead of convincing everyone that the Oscar buzz is unnecessary, he makes the fatal mistake of insulting Heath and sending his diehard fans into an angry frenzy.
Each year more than 100,000 Americans die of alcohol or drug abuse. It would be madness to commemorate one such death with the greatest honor in cinema. Please give the Academy Award to someone who's had the courage to stick around.
But Lucas isn't just angry at Heath for his extracurricular activities: He simply thinks the Joker's performance isn't Oscar-worthy, labeled as "a can-can dance of snuffling pseudo-psychopathia" that has "all the subtlety of a hangover." Lucas says it's exactly what he'd expect from "someone who headed home every night to a pill party."
The entire article is filled with harsh words, but there's no real substance. So Eric wasn't that impressed by Heath's performance — millions of others were, and not just because he died. The hype began before his death. And, for the record, fans are allowed to be sad by Heath's untimely end, whether it was his fault or not. To imply otherwise is ridiculous and a cry for attention.
• Liz Taylor is have health troubles. But can she still howl? [DListed]
• Britney Spears has a new man. [Yeeeah]
• Miley Cyrus wants her brother to stay out of Hollywood, presumably so he doesn't steal her spotlight. [ICYDK]
• Kendra Wilkinson wears a short skirt for charity. [HT]
• Casting rumors for the next Batman movie: Who's going to play The Riddler? [INO]
• Mary-Kate Olsen's bringing the 90s — and our desire to vomit — back. [PS]
First the Wall Street Journal posited that The Dark Knight was about the war on terror and that Batman was President Bush. Now this, from New York Post film critic Kyle Smith:
Batman is not charming. He isn't popular, partly because he's a zealot and partly because he doesn't bother to explain himself to the press. He is independently wealthy, having spent years as the head of an industrial company. His methods are disturbing, his operations bathed in darkness. He is misunderstood, mistrusted, endlessly pursued by the attack dogs of the night…. And he lives in an undisclosed location. Isn't it obvious? Batman is Dick Cheney with hair.
(emphasis added)
Heyyyyyyy! How did I miss this:
Everyone loses their shit on occasions, don’t they? Like, ‘Oh God, what demon possessed me to do that?’ … My wife gets to live with a variety of men. Some of them she likes, some of them she doesn’t. There are ones people like and others that they say, ‘Man we’re glad you’re finished with that project. You were an asshole.’
Check it: I hate to do this today, because I know that right now everyone's in a total love affair with Christian Bale and his new take on Batman and all that, but I've found a unique opportunity to address something important to me and I thought I should take it.
CONTINUED »
Late actor Heath Ledger knew exactly how psycho he needed to be to play the Joker.
During the filming of The Dark Knight Heath Ledger kept a notebook to help him get in character, detailing all the things that he felt the Joker would find funny.
And what was the first entry?
Great idea for Katie Holmes to turn down The Dark Knight, huh?
The Dark Knight premiere in Barcelona yesterday marked Christian Bale's first public appearance since the media circus exploded over allegations he assaulted his mother and sister. And then, of course, there's PETA's unimportant claims that he also beats dogs. The great thing about Bale is that he doesn't act like a diva — although he bypassed reporters on the red carpet, he posed for lots of pictures and then spent an extended period of time signing autographs for all his fans. And we also love him because he's honest, like in a recent interview in which he opened up about his temper:
Everyone loses their shit on occasions, don’t they? Like, ‘Oh God, what demon possessed me to do that?’ … My wife gets to live with a variety of men. Some of them she likes, some of them she doesn’t. There are ones people like and others that they say, ‘Man we’re glad you’re finished with that project. You were an asshole.’
To be fair, we still don't believe he did anything horrible to his mother and sister over the weekend. He would have admitted it by now.
[Source]
In what should come as a shock to absolutely no one, PETA announced that it is upset with The Dark Knight because of a short scene in which Batman beats a few dogs in self-defense. PETA obviously has nothing better to complain about.
But to really show Batman the error of his ways, the animal rights organization removed him from its list of Top 10 Animal-Friendly Superheroes. Ouch. There's also some great lines in the rant: "They didn't need to make Batman into a dogphobic man!" True poetry. Then PETA asks, "Doesn't the man with the James Bond gadgets know anything about peanut butter treats and deflecting devices?" Um, PETA? Did you even see the movie or are you simply unaware of how dumb you sound?
Click through for the complete inanity. CONTINUED »
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes looked creepier than usual this weekend at a California race track. Katie sure made the right choices in life — instead of starring in the summer's hottest movie, she gave up her role in order to spend quality time with her spooky husband and cut off even more of her hair.
Let this be a lesson to you, kids: Stay in school and keep away from the crazies.
[Source]
No surprise here: The Dark Knight raked in over $155 million this weekend and broke a bunch of box office records. The latest Batman movie also became my latest obsession (see also: Jason Castro), inspiring me to see it twice in under 48 hours.
For those of you who saw it, click through for my favorite moments from the film and then feel free to add your own. (SPOILER ALERT, obviously) CONTINUED »
LET THE RECORD-BREAKING BEGIN "Buoyed by excellent reviews and exceptional word of mouth, the Batman adventure The Dark Knight has set a box office record for any midnight debut. … The movie made $18.5 million on Friday from its showings in 3,040 theaters, topping the $16.9 million made by the debut of 2005's Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith."
The Dark Knight finally hit theaters starting at 12:01 a.m., with theaters even selling out their 3 and 6 a.m. showtimes. My friends are lame and didn't want to go at midnight, so I chickened out because the joker masks scare me (it probably goes back to my fear of clowns) and I didn't want to be alone with the crazies (see above) late at night. So for those of you brave enough to face the masses: Was it worth it?
[Source]
We've ranted before about how we can't stand professional critics and find them to be archaic and condescending. And yesterday the backlash against New York's negative Dark Knight review showed us that some of you are similarly irreverent. But is there anyone out there who thinks movie critics are important? To be sure, Anthony Lane's a great read, but does anyone actually give thought to his opinions before going to the cinema? Seriously, we want to know. Do you believe in critics? Does anyone exist whose review of the new Batman would cause you to not go see it?
Vitaminwater got in on the MLB All-Star Week parties last night and felt the best way to promote the brand was by inviting the classiest of celebrities, which included Aubrey O'Day and the Naked Cowboy. The event also attracted some leftover guests from the Batman premiere who just wanted to be photographed. If that's not getting more people to drink the beverage, we don't know what will.
[Source]
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