Upon exclusively viewing the CW's Stylista — a reality show featuring 11 contestants competing for The Greatest Prize Ever (and a job at Elle magazine) — we discovered the premise is quite obviously based on The Devil Wears Prada: Incompetent people who have no business being involved in the fashion industry? Check. Frightening dictator (fashion news director Anne Slowey)? Check. Inane tasks that have seemingly nothing to do with fashion? Check. The difference: We wanted Anne Hathaway to succeed in the movie; in the reality TV version, we kind of hope everyone fails miserably.
Everyone is calling this year's election the most important vote in decades. And we kind of have to agree with this "Everyone." But not for the reasons you would think, like providing health care, saving retirement accounts, battling global warming, and making either Delaware or Alaska relevant. But because in the media industry, it's creating a lot of firsts!
Yes, the faltering economy and collapsing ad market helped push MTV toward its decision to accept political advertisements for the first time in its history, but also this election is just too important to let media ethics get in the way of reaching young voters.
Also, while Esquire magazine has, in its entire 75-year history, never endorsed a candidate before, now they will! Not because they need to see some hot newsstand sales from a Barack Obama cover (oh, you thought they'd endorse McCain?), but because this election is just too important to allow readers to go without knowing whom the Esquire masthead wants to see in the White House.
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The executives behind right-wing comedy flick An American Carol, which the Philadelphia Enquirer called "about as not-funny as a comedy can get," are claiming that fraudulent sales practices at movie theaters around America are preventing Carol's box office tallies from reaching the astronomical levels they would otherwise.
Did all the conservatives decide to go batshit insane at the same time?
Because learning from the mistakes of the past is so five minutes ago, spoiled young Americans nationwide have yet to understand that racing to get rich is really a very horrible, unwise thing to do with one's life. This as many of their parents struggle to make this semester's tuition payments. What little brats we're rearing.
To wit, many college students, instead of going abroad to study foreign art or interesting cultures, are choosing to spend a semester in the exciting and unique locale of Los Angeles, California, boning up on how to make money in the clustered vampire pit that is Hollywood.
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This Friday, theaters across America will be the sites of protests as the National Federation of the Blind pickets Fernando Meirelles' Blindness in what is either the greatest viral marketing stint of all time, or the worst irony in a film title since Adaptation.
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Nice guys the world over are sure of one thing besides death and taxes: people love assholes. Curb Your Enthusiasm fans are also aware of this fact, or at least they should be, considering how much of an asshole Larry David is. Bukowski fans should know this too. And David Sedaris fans.
The obnoxious dickheads always win, people. So why the hell is anyone perplexed by Toby Young's success?
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Meet Bo Burnham, YouTube sensation (not of the Chris Crocker variety) and the latest member of the Judd Apatow family. This kid just turned 18 and he's already been tapped to write the music for — and star in — a new Apatow comedy that is being billed as "the anti-High School Musical." Sounds awesome already.
Why buy the cow when its way of life is so reliant upon you that it can't leave, despite the fact that you rob it blind? That's apparently the abusive husband-like thinking of the city of Los Angeles, which continues to watch shows formerly filmed in its borders – Ugly Betty, In Treatment – head east after failing to offer film and television productions tax breaks comparable to those of New York City.
LA has always sucked, but it's going to suck even more if visitors driving around and looking at it can't every 20 minutes go, "Hey, that's that building from that one movie." According to the numbers, that's happening quite frequently these days. The mayor's office estimates that in just five months since the city of New York enacted their massive tax breaks, city-based shoots have contributed $505 million more in spending than they did during the same time last year.
And New York's not the only city wising up to how profitable playing nice with the movie stars is:
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A Rome priest is fighting for his life after being stabbed in the neck and stomach by a deranged man who had just watched the film The Da Vinci Code on television:
If movies and television are rated to warn potential viewers they contain foul language, drug use and/or boobs, why can't they be rated to warn potential viewers they contain not so subtle ads for crap like Old Spice, also? This is the central question of a new piece in today's Slate. A piece in which Alissa Quart slowly unravels an argument, asks a lot of questions and then never really approaches a conclusion, as writers at Slate are wont to do.
Here's the story in a nutshell: The FCC has said that it would like a way to make sure the public is "informed of the sources of program while concurrently balancing the First Amendment and artistic rights of programmers." Quart proposes a rating of B for "branding." The problem is that the FCC currently has no control over cable and film and to get control would take an act of Congress. The end (surprisingly without any discussion of the concerns a rational person would have about the FCC having control over film and cable). Time for Quart to ponder:
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On Monday, pallid shredder Jack White released a statement complaining that the theme song he composed with Alicia Keys for upcoming Bond film Quantum of Solace, "Another Way to Die," had no business in the hands of Coca Cola.
Coke is currently using "Another Way" in its Coke Zero Zero 7 commercials, and White, obviously completely ignorant to the way modern mega-corporations pimp each other's creativity, feels slighted by this. He went so far as to say he was "disappointed."
Of course, we were desperate to hear the song White holds so dear. Take a listen after the jump.
Black, white and red all over musician Jack White is reportedly upset that "Another Way to Die," the Bond theme he recorded with songstress Alicia Keys, was co-opted by Coca Cola for use in a series of Coke Zero commercials. Coke is temporarily rebranding Coke Zero as Coke Zero Zero 7 in order to promote Quantum of Solace, which premieres October 29, and White just can't stand this deception!
In a statement released Monday, White says he is "disappointed," adding that "Another Way" was "not for Coca Cola." Coke spokespeople have yet to respond, as they're having difficulty hearing Jack from their golden lounge chairs on top of their Scrooge McDuck piles of money.
No word yet on what sort of moral dance White did to arrive at the idea that it's OK to sell out to MGM but not Coke.
In the meantime, laugh at White getting a taste of his own, bitter medicine, as Oasis rocker Noel Gallagher is currently telling any British press person who will listen that it's a "pisstake" that a movie about a great British spy is being soundtracked by "a bunch of fucking Americans."
So last night I was invited to the premiere of Hounddog, the film that caused a lot of controversy a while back because it features a Dakota Fanning rape scene. After watching the movie, I can safely say that the fuss was overblown, but that's probably obvious at this point.
On to the good stuff: The red carpet! Where my spot along the velvet ropes was labeled "Whittle Little, Jossip.com." Awesome.
As if Times Square wasn't already enough of a glowing, shimmering paragon of excess, with its corporate sponsorships and cheesy chain restaurants, for six days in October (2nd-7th), it's going to become an outsized rec room for eight saddies out to break the record for most consecutive hours spent watching movies.
Yes, the sin of sloth is an actual goal for eight very lonely, very talentless people, all of whom will be subjected to weird testing throughout the 56 movie marathon (titles TBD) to ensure they are in fact watching the films and not just staring at the screen.
Ashish Sharma, who holds the current, shameful record of 120 hours and 23 minutes of movie watching, will be flying over from India in an attempt to maintain his title and win the grand prize: $10,000 and a lifetime subscription to Netflix.
That's good news for the rest of us, as a never ending supply of movies is sure to keep whoever is crowned King Lazy Rat Bastard out of the gene pool for good.
This movie poster, for Kevin Smith's October release Zack and Miri Make a Porno, was deemed inappropriate by the MPAA, which doesn't just hate BitTorrent users but also regulates all movie advertising in exchange for slapping letters like "PG" and "R" on movies to keep kids safe. Because the poster, like those fake Puma ads, insinuated oral sex, they were not cleared for use by Hollywood's regulatory body. (This, after the MPAA agreed to downgrade the movie's rating from NC-17 to R.) So Kevin Smith went back to the drawing board, and came up with this safer, family-friendly version: CONTINUED »
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