Happy New Year!!!! 2007

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

As the age of piracy comes to a close, Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann must sail off the edge of the map, navigate treachery and betrayal, and make their final alliances for one last decisive battle. Our heroes must face Lord Cutler Beckett, Davy Jones and Admiral James Norrington in a titanic showdown that could eliminate the freedom-loving pirates from the seven seas -- forever.

In the follow-up to the record-breaking smash 2006 hit "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," we find our heroes Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) allied with Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) in a desperate quest to free Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from his mind-bending trap in Davy Jones' locker - while the terrifying ghost ship, The Flying Dutchman and Davy Jones, under the control of the East India Trading Company, wreaks havoc across the Seven Seas. Navigating through treachery, betrayal and wild waters, they must forge their way to exotic Singapore and confront the cunning Chinese Pirate Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat). Now headed beyond the very ends of the earth, each must ultimately choose a side in a final, titanic battle - as not only their lives and fortunes, but the entire future of the freedom-loving Pirate way, hangs in the balance.

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Gore Verbinski from a screenplay written by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio, our beloved cast sets sail once again on a fresh new adventure in May 2007.

Johnny Depp, Martin Klebba and Rolling Stone Keith Richards on the set of Pirates 3.

Jason Bateman’s representation is close to closing a deal for Bateman to star opposite Will Smith and Charlize Theron in Peter Berg’s superhero drama “Tonight, He Comes.”

Script, originally by Vincent Ngo and rewritten by Vince Gilligan, has long been considered one of the best un-produced scripts in town. Smith plays a down-and-out superhero that has a bad image with the public because he causes a lot of collateral damage while he solves crime, and he’s an alcoholic.

Bateman plays a corporate public relations consultant, who after being rescued buy Smith tries to repay him by revamping his image. But while Bateman is trying to repair Smith’s reputation the superhero is secretly romancing Bateman’s alluring wife played by Theron.

Shooting will start in early May 2007 in Los Angeles.

Source: Production Weekly

"The Good Shepherd is a fictionalized version of history which is accurate in almost every incident. But because the filmmakers are liberated from trying to be faithful to the tiny details, they've come a lot closer in many ways to capturing some essential truths about this extraordinary period of intelligence, counterintelligence, betrayal and espionage during the Cold War...There's no way to understand the present without understanding how we got there. And The Good Shepherd tells us."
--Richard C. A. Holbrooke,
United States Ambassador to the United Nations, 1999-2001

The untold story of the birth of the Central Intelligence Agency -- viewed through the life of one man who believed in America and would sacrifice everything he loved to protect his country -- is told in The Good Shepherd, an epic drama that features an all-star cast starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie -- under the direction of Academy Award winner Robert De Niro.

Tribute: James Brown 1933 - 2006

James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, died early Monday after a bout with pneumonia. According to his agent Frank Copsidas, Brown went to the dentist yesterday for a "routine appointment" when it was discovered that the he had the illness. It's no coincidence that Brown was nicknamed the 'Hardest Working Man in Show Business.' His career peak lasted nearly 20 years, having at least one Top Ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 or the Billboard Top R&B Singles chart each year except one, 1964.

James Brown was 73 when he died.

Happy Holidays

Grind House Trailer

Yahoo! Movies has posted the first teaser trailer for Grind House, the horror double-feature from directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. In addition, the site also has a good-size photo gallery of never-before seen movie stills from the film.

"Grind House" - noun - A downtown movie theater - in disrepair since its glory days as a movie palace of the '30s and '40s - known for "grinding out" non-stop double-bill programs of B-movies. From groundbreaking directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez comes the ultimate film experience: a double-bill of thrillers that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are each directing. Grind House will be presented as one full-length feature comprised of two individual films helmed separately by each director. Rodriguez's part, "Planet Terror," will be a zombie movie that explores an alien world eerily familiar to ours, while Tarantino's section, “Death Proof," will be a slashed film where the killer pursues his victims with a car rather than a knife. Faux trailers and ads will run between the two pics as an intermission. Welcome to the grind house - it'll tear you in two. Grind House arrives in theatres on April 6, 2007.

To watch the trailer go to http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/grindhouse.html

Pan's Labyrinth

Over the course of many years, director Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, The Devil's Backbone, Blade II) made sketches and jotted down ideas into a special leather-bound notebook. Some of these ideas were later realized in his new film Pan's Labyrinth.

Now you can see Del Toro's sketchbook and share your ideas by creating your own interactive sketchbook in Journals of Imagination. Go to: http://www.panslabyrinth.com/mysketchbook to upload your original creations and customize the look of your sketchbook. You'll be able to share your sketchbook with others on the web, browse & rate sketchbooks, and leave comments for the artists. Del Toro will select five winners from all the submissions. The winners will receive a Pan's Labyrinth poster signed by Del Toro, and the Pan's Labyrinth DVD will link to these winning entries on the web.

As an added incentive, the first 30 people to submit a sketchbook will receive a Pan's Labyrinth t-shirt! Pan's Labyrinth opens Dec 29 in select cities, expands on Jan 12, 2007, and goes wide on Jan 19, 2007.

SONY Reaches New Film Industry Record

With this weekend's $27 million dollar #1 release of Will Smith’s The Pursuit of Happiness, SONY Pictures Entertainment's box office receipts for 2006 have passed $1.573 billion, setting a new motion picture industry record for domestic box-office in a single year, it was announced by Jeff Blake, chairman, worldwide marketing and distribution for the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group and vice chairman of SONY Pictures Entertainmnet. In passing the industry record, which Sony set in 2002, the studio caps an extraordinary year in which SPE released a record-breaking 13 #1 films. The studio also launched 13 films to opening weekends of more than $20 million, another industry record, and surpassed more than $3 billion in global ticket sales for the first time. Sony Pictures now holds the top two years in the all-time domestic box office record books.

Source: SONY Pictures Entertainment

The Good German

Based on the novel by Joseph Kanon and directed by Steven Soderbergh, "The Good German" is a mystery, a romance and a thriller in the classic film noir tradition, its intimate human dramas playing out against the turbulence of political intrigue on a grand scale. Not only set in Berlin 1945, but crafted in the filmmaking techniques of that era, it blends a contemporary sensibility with the distinctive mood and style of movies that stirred the imaginations of post-war audiences.

In a story where people's histories and motives are often shrouded in doubt, there is perhaps nothing better than a black-and-white palette to expose the shades of gray.

ABC and Harpo Productions announced Friday that Oprah Winfrey is expanding her media empire into the world of reality television. Her production company is working on two prime-time series for ABC, tentatively titled "Oprah Winfrey's The Big Give" and "Your Money or Your Life," The deal, which marks Winfrey's entrance into series TV, comes about three months after Harpo formed a new television development group for alternative shows, Tim Bennett, the company's president, said in a statement.

"The Big Give" provides money and other resources to 10 people and challenges them to help others in a way that tests the players' ingenuity and passion, according to the companies. The winner gets to realize their "wildest" dream.

"Your Money or Your Life," which is in development, features families who are confronted by a crisis and must change or risk being "consumed by disaster," according to the joint ABC-Harpo release. Winfrey's move into series TV is "monumental," ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson said in the release. The show's focus on "wish fulfillment and making lives better," he said.

Besides daytime TV's "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Harpo produces TV projects and operates the web site oprah.com. Harpo Print LLC co-publishes O, Winfrey's monthly magazine, while Harpo Films produces feature films and TV movies. Air dates for the eight-episode "The Big Give" and the show in development were not announced.

It was a strictly A-list event at last night's charity auction held at L.A.'s Chateau Marmont and hosted by designers Dolce & Gabbana and actress Penelope Cruz to raise awareness for The Art of Elysium.


Founded in 1997 as a non-profit organization, The Art of Elysium encourages working actors, artists and musicians to voluntarily dedicate their time and talent to children who are battling serious medical conditions. They provide artistic workshops in the following disciplines: acting, art, comedy, fashion, music, radio, songwriting and creative writing.

Factory Girl

A beautiful, wealthy young party girl drops out of Radcliffe in 1965 and heads to New York to become Holly Golightly. When she meets a hungry young, artist named Andy Warhol, he promises to make her the star she always wanted to be. And like a super nova she explodes on the New York scene only to find herself slowly lose grip on reality...

Factory Girl starring Siena Miller, is based on the year Edie Sedgwick met Andy Warhol and became known as his muse and later died of a barbiturate overdose in 1971 at the age of 28.

Little Shiloh Nouvel is settling into the globe-trotting lifestyle of her famous mom and dad Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. She has made her first visit to Cambodia, the homeland of her big brother Maddox, a moment which can be seen in the latest issue of HELLO! Magazine. The beautiful pictures of seven-month-old Shiloh are the first to be seen since the couple's daughter made her debut after her birth in Namibia. And it is clear to see from the stunning images that she has taken on the distinctive features of her glamorous parents, inheriting Angelina's famously full lips and her Brad's fair hair.

Angelina's Birthday Present for Brad

It all started about a week before Thanksgiving when arrangements were coordinated by Angelina Jolie’s personal assistant directly from Asia. You can imagine the surprise of the workers at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater when Brad Pitt and Angelia Jolie showed up for a tour of the estate. According to a spokesman for Fallingwater, Pitt and Jolie arrived just before 3 p.m. for the tour, Jolie’s gift to Pitt for his birthday. “Brad said he had wanted to experience Fallingwater ever since he took an architectural history course in college,” Fallingwater’s curator of education Cara Armstrong said. “He and I talked quite a bit about design and art. He was incredibly well-informed about architecture.”

The couple took a two-hour private focused tour, led by Armstrong, who described the couple as “very gracious and very engaged in the house.” “Brad said he had a visual sense of Fallingwater but experiencing it in person, hearing the sound of the waterfall cascading under the house and smelling the wood from the fireplace was better than anything he could have imagined,” Armstrong said. After the tour, Jolie had arranged to have champagne and caviar sent in, which the couple shared in a private birthday celebration in Fallingwater’s living room. Afterward, they invited the staff to join them and encouraged them to take the “snacks” home.

Well, they just can’t get enough of each other. Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony joined their newlywed BFFs Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes for the star-studded premiere of The Pursuit of Happiness. It was a wedding reunion of sorts as the photogenic foursome joined 'Happiness' star Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith for a sneak peek at Will’s new critically acclaimed film.

Blood Diamond

The African adventure is set in Sierra Leone circa 1999, a time when the nation was in the midst of a horrific civil war. DiCaprio plays the role of a smuggler who specializes in the sale of "blood diamonds," also known as "conflict diamonds" -- the precious stones used to finance rebellions, privateers and terrorists.When the smuggler encounters an indigenous Mende farmer whose young son has disappeared into the RUF's army of child soldiers, the two men's fates become linked.

Madonna Designs for H&M

Check out a preview of sketches from Madonna's upcoming collection for Swedish low-cost retailer H&M. The collection, M by Madonna, will consist of wardrobe staples and accessories and will be available in all stores carrying women's wear as of March 2007. Madonna said: "I've made no secret of my love of fashion over the years. Working with Margareta and H&M was an exciting and new creative challenge for me."

Britney Speaks

Britney Spears has finally responded to all the tabloid attention by posting a note on her official website. Since we always get tons of email regarding Britney we have decided to post it as well.

Grammy Nominations

Justin Timberlake was just one of the superstars on hand today in Los Angeles to announce the 49th Annual Grammy Award nominations. Mary J Blige got eight nominations for her album 'The Breakthrough' – unquestionably the biggest album in her career. The Red Hot Chili Peppers were also multiple nominees, garnering six nominations. The Big Four awards — Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist — consisted of mainly unsurprising nominees like the Dixie Chicks, Gnarls Barkley, James Blunt, Carrie Underwood and of course Justin Timberlake.

For all of you who flooded our mail box with thousands of emails wondering where we have been…………Well, we were traveling coast to coast for an amazing long weekend of premieres galore........officially jump STARting the big Holiday mega-blockbuster season.

Cate Blanchett absolutely thrilled us with her Versace gown at the premiere of her new film ‘The Good German' in Hollywood last night. 'The Good German' is one of four movies Blanchett has on her roster to be released in the next year. Her co-stars George Clooney and Toby Maguire were also at the Egyptian Theatre for the screening.

Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose and Beyonce Knowles sizzled on the red carpet at the 'Dreamgirls' premiere at New York City's famed Ziegfeld Theatre.

Reporters were peppering Beyonce about the rumors floating around tabloid circles that she was jealous of her 'Dreamgirls' co-star Jennifer Hudson.

"I knew that the character I played wasn't the star," Beyonce told reporters on December 2 about her Deena Jones role, compared to Hudson's meaty part as Effie White. "She wasn't the underdog. She didn't have the struggle and the pain and the dramatic scenes that Effie had, and I was fine with that. It's really unfortunate that everyone is saying I'm jealous of Jennifer. It hurts my heart because it's so clichéd... They're saying that I'm mad when I knew going into this that I was playing Deena... Because I'm a star they just automatically assume that I'm not humble enough to sit down and take a back seat, which I am. I'm already a star. I already have nine Grammys. Everyone knows I can sing...I did this because I wanted people to know that I can act and I can play someone so different from myself."

Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Kate Winslet continued their promotional crusade today as they attended the UK premiere of 'The Holiday' at Odeon Leicester Square in London. The screening was in aid of NCH and MediCinema.

In a recent interview with ComingSoon.net, Cameron discussed what it was like doing love scenes with Jude while in a personal relationship with Justin Timberlake:

"Well it's a funny thing we do. It's a weird job. I'm not going to say that it's not. You guys have all been around it long enough. You've asked these questions every time I'm sure to other actors. As actors we commit ourselves to certain emotions for the movie and for the sake of telling the story. That's what we do. We're storytellers. I'm sure as you ask every other actor, they'll all tell you it's uncomfortable first off to think about having to be intimate with somebody who isn't the person that you're intimate with. But, you're acting and it's your job and there's certainly a level of professional that is essential to do that kind of work. You're in a room with 50 people and the camera is right here. It's about making people believe it's something, but it's never that. For some people, I'm sure it's happened, but it's just not that for me anyhow. We're acting."