Tom Cruise Wraps Filming in China

Tom Cruise wrapped filming of Mission: Impossible III today in China. Cruise and the film’s director, J.J. Abrams held a press conference for journalists atop the historic Bund 18 building after wrapping up scenes for the new "Mission: Impossible" film, due in theaters next year.

The 43-year-old Cruise answered questions about the film and his impending nuptials to fellow actor Katie Holmes.

When asked about his own plans to wed pregnant fiancée, Cruise replied, "You want to know where we're going to get married? The exact date? The exact place? The color dress, designer?"

He added: "You know, we haven't set a date. ... It will happen next year."

Cruise recently told Barbara Walters in an interview that he had purchased a sonogram machine so that he and the 26-year-old actress could see the development of their baby. Holmes' pregnancy was announced in early October.

The couple, who have been dating since April, became engaged in June.

Julia Roberts Stays On Top

Julia Roberts hasn't even starred in a movie this year yet she remains the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, commanding $20 million a film, according to the Hollywood Reporter's annual list of top-earning actresses.

Nicole Kidman ranked second at $16-17 million per movie, followed by Reese Witherspoon and Drew Barrymore with $15 million. Renée Zellweger, Angelina Jolie and Cameron Diaz followed with salaries of $10-15 million per movie.

The Simple Life Returns

The plot thickens between feuding ex-best friends Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie.

E! Entertainment Television will pick-up the show made famous by Hilton & Ritchie - The Simple Life. The show will be produced in a new format that allows them to have nothing to do with each other.

Fox had declined to air a fourth season of the one-time reality hit, but E! said today it would show 10 new episodes starting next spring. The series' initial charm was the humor of spoiled, bratty rich girls interacting with real people and each other. But the two had a falling out, with Hilton saying last spring they were no longer friends, although not explaining what led to it.

The fourth season will have Hilton and Richie taking turns playing a "wife" and running households, with the family involved each week deciding which of the two did a better job.
If Hilton and Richie are still not talking, the format allows for filming to take place with each woman not coming into contact with the other, said Chris Alexander, spokesman for Twentieth Century Fox Television.

E! has also acquired the rights to rerun the first three seasons of The Simple Life.

Simon Cowell Leaving American Idol?

A court case pitting American Idol's Simon Cowell against the show's creator, Simon Fuller, due to begin today, could eventually result in Cowell's leaving American Idol and bringing a similar talent show, X-Factor, which he created for the British market, to another U.S. network, the New York Times reported.The newspaper said that Cowell is seeking a settlement that would allow him to continue to manage the American Idol winners. A Cowell associate told the Times: "Simon is not interested in making a star for another label."

Phoenix and Witherspoon Walk The Line by Terry Lawson

In director James Mangold's Walk the Line, opening Friday, Joaquin Phoenix, plays Johnny Cash, a man whose face, style and voice is familiar even to those with an aversion to country music. The film focuses on the tumultuous relationship between Cash and his wife, June Carter, played by Reese Witherspoon.

Though Phoenix nabbed the part that many actors coveted, he admits to being a "little panicked" when he was told he had won the job. "I thought, 'Oh, this is great ... oh, I don't know if I can do this,'" Phoenix said during an interview at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. "The truth is, I was an admirer of Johnny Cash the man, but I really wasn't familiar with his work. I knew 'Folsom Prison Blues,' of course, but everything that came before and after was a little hazy."

Phoenix first talked to Mangold, director of the gritty thriller Copland, around the time he was getting his first mass exposure in his supporting role in Gladiator. "My girlfriend of the time, Liv Tyler, knew Jim and had told him she thought I might be right for the part, I'm not exactly sure why. Anyway, we had a good talk, but I told him upfront I wasn't a musician or a singer. At that time, it hadn't been decided if we would actually perform the music or use Johnny's original recordings.

"Still, the first thing I did was go out and buy a guitar and just learn how to hold it, you know? I got a book and taught myself a few chords. But I didn't do any research really, because I thought if I did, I'd jinx it. So when the film finally did get a green light, I had some cramming to do."

Reactions to Walk the Line following its Toronto premiere were mixed, but one thing nearly everyone agreed on was the strength of the performances by Phoenix and Witherspoon and the chemistry between them. Both actors are already on just about every observer's short list for Oscar nominations.

"I don't know that I could have done this without Reese," says Phoenix. "We have very different acting styles, but she had enough faith in our compatibility for the both of us. She's the one who got me a singing coach and hooked me up with T-Bone (Burnett, the producer and guitarist), who was really encouraging.

"But I think the first time I felt like it was going to be OK was when Johnny's son John R. came to a rehearsal," he says. The younger Cash was a consultant on the film. "He said, 'You know, you hold that guitar just like Daddy did.' That was enough to keep me going."

Weight of reality Witherspoon was also intimidated by playing someone so well-known. She grew up in Nashville, where, she says, "country music was everywhere. The voice of Johnny Cash was everywhere."

"I had never played any real-life characters in any of my films, and I realized pretty quickly there was a responsibility attached. You want to be true to who these people were, but you also have to have their trust. Remember, John and June were both still alive when James started working on this almost 10 years ago, and they were very concerned about how they would be portrayed."

Though both Cash and Carter had written and talked extensively about their relationship -- which began when June was still performing as a member of the legendary Carter Family singing group and Cash was an up-and-coming young country star appearing at the Grand Ole Opry -- they had always said their relationship was never physical while both were married to other people.

"Nobody really believed that, but these were Christian people with families who grew up in a time and place where adultery was considered a truly sinful act, not some sort of casual thing that was easily forgotten or forgiven," says Witherspoon. "They may have been in show business, but they weren't Hollywood celebrities. They had a different code of conduct, and it was hard for them.

"Finally, Jim just told them he couldn't make the movie and make it convincing if he tried to maintain that fiction, because the truth was, what they had done weighed heavily on them; it affected how they lived. Ultimately, they said OK, but it was hard for them."

Witherspoon said the idea of doing the actual performing in the film initially "scared me to death. The only public singing I had ever done was as a kid, in plays, that sort of thing."
But it was eventually decided that unlike "Ray," the Ray Charles biography with which "Walk the Line" is destined to be endlessly compared, the actors would do their own singing. Witherspoon also learned to play autoharp, the multi-stringed Appalachian instrument that June played with the Carter Family.

"I actually had it easier than Joaquin because while June had a beautiful voice, the focus was never on that in the early years; her sisters were always considered the real singers. She mostly contributed harmonies. And, of course, she had carved out her niche as the comedian in the act. So except for her true fans, most people know singing mostly through her duets with John."
It was decided that Phoenix would try to find the essence of Cash's distinctive baritone and not attempt an imitation.

"I wanted this to be authentic as possible, but I also wanted to play the people, not the images," says director Mangold. "The Johnny and June you see in this movie are the people outsiders never saw."

MADONNA the Disco Queen

The diva has returned to the disco. The swirling, throbbing and altogether great Confessions on a Dance Floor is Madonna's nonstop ecstatic cabaret. The 12-song set takes some of its musical cues from the likes of Giorgio Moroder and Richard X, though it remains thoroughly and uniquely a work of Madonna, who never gets lost in the dizzying beats and dense production. The tunes focus on self-discovery ("How High"), enlightenment ("Future Lovers," "Get Together"), empowerment ("Jump") and love ("Push").

There are also fluffier cuts: a rocking dance anthem in "I Love New York," the ABBA-sampling lead single "Hung Up" and the springy "Sorry." In the wake of 2003's dead-on-arrival "American Life," "Confessions" is a welcome return to form for the Queen of Pop. — Keith Caulfield for Billboard.com

"I wanted a record with no ballads," Madonna says simply about Confessions on a Dance Floor, due this week via Warner Bros. "I wanted there to be no breaks, with one song segueing into the next -- just like in a disco."

Led by the hit single "Hung Up," the 12-track album was inspired by the many remixes Madonna's songs have received over the years. "Whenever I make records, I often like the remixes better than the original versions," she says. "So, I thought, screw that. I'm going to start from that perspective."

In tandem with producer Stuart Price, Madonna took her music back to the place where she first made her mark in the early '80s: the clubs. But they did so in a way that, while wickedly retro, pushes the beats and rhythms into the future. "Our intention was to give a nod and a wink to people like Giorgio Moroder and the Bee Gees," Madonna says. "Stuart and I didn't want to remake the past, but make it into something new." "Confessions" was primarily conceived at Price's home studio. "I'd come by in the morning and Stuart would answer the door in his stocking feet -- as he'd been up all night," Madonna muses. "I'd bring him a cup of coffee and say, 'Stuart, your house is a mess, there's no food in the cupboard.' Then I'd call someone from my house to bring food over for him. And then we'd work all day. We're very much the odd couple."

Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor hits stores tomorrow, November 15th -- this is one Madonna album that everyone MUST buy, it'll have you craving the dance floor. - The Hollywood Bureau

Revelations From Steven Speilberg

During a Q & A session at the University of Southern California film school, director Steven Spielberg updated the crowd on what is going on with his latest projects.

Speilberg is working with writers on the script to Jurassic Park IV and says that there is going to be a big dinosaur sequence where a pack of motorcycles are forced to out run a bunch of Raptors. Spielberg said that just with the other films in the series, he's going to “cherry pick” certain scenes he loved from the books and include them in the new film.

Not much was said about Indiana Jones 4 except that Lucas and Nathanson are locked away writing the script, and that Harrison Ford will be returning. He did casually mention that Lucas wants to simultaneously release Indy IV in 3-D.

Spielberg said that he would like to one day remake one of his earliest films Sugarland Express.

Finally, Spielberg said that has not and does not plan to develop a total film emersion technology (he was just as surprised as everyone else that that was a rumor), and said that he believes a barrier must exist between the film audience and the film itself.

He also mentioned that he saw tests that were done to convert Casablanca, Top Gun, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Laurel and Hardy into 3-D and said that the industry is going to have to be very careful about what they move to make 3-D; because classic films like Casablanca looked horrible!

Harry Potter Reviews Are In

The first British reviews are in for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire following Saturday night's London premiere, and if they are any indication of how the film will be received elsewhere, Warner Bros. executives will have reason to raise a goblet or two of their own to their future box-office success.

"The passage of Harry and his friends into their teenage years has come off smoothly," James Christopher writes in the London Times. "Adolescence is Harry's new foe. And it brings the kind of challenges that most parents hate." Christopher credits director Mike Newell for a "considerable triumph" in keeping "the thrills up to exhilarating scratch." David Edwards in the Daily Mirror calls the fourth Potter film "the best yet -- a magnificent, magical and truly mesmerising fantasy epic that reminds you just how great a kids' movie can be."

JARHEAD Reviewed By J.P. Mangalindan

We're used to Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, gritty epic films that crescendo with deafening, bombastic intensity and shake us to the very core with the visceral. So, with a war drama like Jarhead, it's refreshing that not only are actual battles few, they’re ultimately anticlimactic.

The human drama that underscores Anthony Swofford’s bestselling account of his time as an active Marine remains at the forefront of Sam Mendes’ sensitive and beautiful adaptation.

Swofford, played winningly by Jake Gyllenhaal, is, like many men joining the Marines, a man with a mission. Other than a girlfriend, he doesn’t have much going for him; his goal by joining the corps is to find purpose in his everyday life. With the onset of the Iraqi war, Swofford finds himself swept up and shipped out as part of Operation Desert Shield. He comes to face with many things — death and personal demons — but little to no action.

Where are the long stretches of panoramic shots, minefields and bullets flying? Where are the bloody limbs? Jarhead doesn’t have much of that. It’s a war film that’s not as much about war as it is about the human condition in such circumstances — sending off young recruits to face possible death and how they cope; it examines this existential form of Russian Roulette without neatly tying the loose ends for an orthodox finale.

As Swofford, Gyllenhaal exhibits acting chops that put his male peers (I won't name names) to shame. His multi-faced portrayal is simultaneously endearing but flawed with the immaturity of youth. When he pulls a Christmas stunt most women aren’t likely to forget anytime soon (think male stripper meets Santa Claus) or he pulls a gun on a comrade, you never question his motives, even if you occasionally doubt his ability to lead his fellow men, including Peter Saarsgard as the emotionally tortured Troy.

There are scenes of absolute beauty in Jarhead: the long trek through the oil-laden deserts of Iraq is frightening, but gorgeous to behold as plumes of smoke and geysers of oil shower the night with their evocations of barren hopelessness and death. Mendes should be commended for capturing some of the most picturesque, emotional charged imagery in recent cinema. The charm in Jarhead lies in its ability to focus solely on flawed human nature and the inevitable emotional havoc wrought by war without needing to heavily explore the active elements of war itself. It’s no easy feat, but Mendes does it, and in doing so, has accomplished his best film since American Beauty. Hoo-ha.

Shake Up At CNN

There was more storm coverage on CNN Wednesday; however, the coverage was provided by other news media as the cable news network contended with yet another programming upheaval that included the ouster of an eminent anchor, his replacement by a rising star, and a realignment of shows. CNN/US President Jonathan Klein suggested that what he had once called his "fire and ice" pairing of Anderson Cooper and Aaron Brown during the 10:00 p.m.-to-midnight time period was not working and that he had no option other than to drop Brown.

The decision came while Brown was on vacation, and reporters could not reach him for comment. However, the blog "What's Happening at CNN" quoted a source close to the journalist as saying he felt "somewhat 'liberated' by CNN's action. "He was NOT happy with much of what's been going on at CNN," the source said. Klein told Reuters that there was "no reason to delay making this move. We've got the pieces in place," apparently referring to the fact that, because of Brown's absence, Cooper had already taken over as the de facto sole anchor of the late-evening time period.

In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Klein expressed confidence that "Anderson's the man, obviously" to reinvigorate the news channel and overcome the current ratings lead of rival Fox News Network. "The whole country is talking about Anderson," Klein told the newspaper, "and it only made sense to find a larger showcase for him." Klein also announced a reshuffling of CNN's primetime programs. Wolf Blitzer will take over Cooper's former time period at 7:00 p.m. with The Situation Room, which will now air from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Paula Zahn and Larry King will continue in their present time periods at 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. and Anderson Cooper: 360 will take over the 10:00-p.m.-to midnight hours.

Reaction to the CNN moves by critics and business analysts was generally negative. In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Alex Jones, director of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, deplored the fact that CNN could find no place on its schedule for Brown, whom he called "a smart, thoughtful, careful, unhyperbolic newsman -- exactly the kind of analytic thinker and calm presence that CNN should want to have." But Charles Bierbauer, now dean of the University of South Carolina's College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, noted that "Cooper is younger, more energetic" than Brown. "He cuts a different figure."

Brad Pitt and George Clooney Buy Gay Bar in Laguna Beach??

Defamer.com reported that George Clooney, Brad Pitt and an airplane finance tycoon are buying one of Laguna Beach’s best-known gay bars, the Boom Boom Room, and plan to turn it into a ritzy restaurant and bed and breakfast, according to sources.

The actors have teamed with Beverly Hills billionaire Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, chief executive of airplane lessor International Lease Finance Corp., to buy the Boom Boom Room and its adjoining Coast Inn on Pacific Coast Highway, sources said.

The bar and hotel could be converted into a restaurant and the first bed and breakfast in a chain of such getaways to bear the names of Clooney and Pitt. Clooney also has teamed with developers who are planning the $3 billion Las Ramblas condominium and hotel complex (www.lasramblasvegas.com) near the Strip in Las Vegas. The real money behind the Laguna Beach deal, sources said, is Udvar-Hazy, who ranks 125th on Forbes’ list of richest Americans with an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion. With a mansion in Monarch Beach, Udvar-Hazy also appears on the Business Journal’s list of the county’s “Weekend Wealthy.”

The Hollywood Bureau contacted publicists for both Pitt and Clooney and they say this story is absolutely false saying, "Brad Pitt and George Clooney have no plans to buy the Boom Room, and furthermore do not even know Mr. Udvar-Hazy."

ThinkFilm Grabs The Beastie Boys' Awesome

ThinkFilm has nabbed worldwide rights to Awesome: I Fuckin' Shot That, a kaleidoscopic Beastie Boys concert documentary shot mainly by 50 fans on hand-held Hi8 cameras at Madison Square Garden, president and CEO Jeff Sackman said Tuesday.

The film was directed by Beastie rapper Adam "MCA" Yauch, using the moniker Nathaniel Hornblower. "Frantic" is the word Yauch used to describe the footage, which he assembled from material recorded Oct. 9, 2004, by fans, six band friends using DV 24p cameras and two high-quality tour video cameras offering bird's-eye and long-distance views.

Reese Witherspoon Developing The Reckoning

Reese Witherspoon is developing the dramatic thriller The Reckoning through her production company Type A Films as a possible starring vehicle.

Based on a book by Jeff Long, the story centers on a photojournalist who arrives in Cambodia to cover the U.S. military search for the remains of an American pilot shot down during the Vietnam War. Ted Tally (Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs) penned the screenplay, which is out to directors.

Grey's Anatomy Wins Coveted Superbowl Time Slot

ABC has awarded Grey's Anatomy the time slot following next year's Super Bowl. Last Sunday, the show drew the highest ratings of the night -- higher even than its lead-in Desperate Housewives (which aired a rerun). "The producers are preparing a great episode that will appeal to new viewers as well as devoted fans," ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson said in a statement. "It's the perfect conclusion to one of TV's biggest days."