Oy, biopic season. Can't we just skip this year and forget about Milk and W and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People? Or, just keep that last one on account of Simon Pegg being funny and Kirsten Dunst being tolerable, and get rid off all the rest?
Because it's not officially time for the movie biographies unless actors start whipping it out to Oscarbait, here is Jamie Foxx going full retard crazy for the movie adaptation of L.A. Times' columnist Steve Lopez's book, The Soloist. Foxx plays "troubled street musician" Nathaniel Ayres, with perennial character actor and Iron Man supah-star RDJ along for the ride as Lopez, natch:
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Guess it was too much to ask for another entertaining blockbuster this year (Dark Knight is going to continue trouncing everyone at the box office till Christmas): Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller's first directorial effort since Zoolander in 2001, is already garnering "meh" reactions from critics. Which seems kind of implausible for a film that's been mired in controversy since Robert Downey Jr. first spread on the greasepaint.
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Two eyebrow-raising Hollywood scandals popped up this week, one including an actual eyebrow! Must we make Tinseltown worry about anything other than budgets and insuring Lindsay Lohan?
First up, the battle between Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment and paparazzo Ronnie Adams, who snapped a photo of Robert Downey Jr. on the set of big-budet action flick Iron Man while the movie was still filming.
As producers for the big and small screen continually battle back against potential spoilers, the studio demanded Adams remove the photo from his website, where he had posted it. He refused, but they eventually got to his web host, who yanked his account.
And then … his photo resurfaced. In Iron Man.
That's according to Adams' lawsuit, which claims that after all its complaining, Marvel used the copyrighted photo – after removing Adams' watermark – in a scene in the movie, showing a newspaper article headlined "Who is this Ironman." Fiscally savvy Adams, filing suit against the studios, now wants to get remunerated for his unsolicited efforts in contributing to this "pivotal scene."
So that's one photo scandal. This next one features Tom Cruise and Nazis! And an eyebrow! CONTINUED »
Oh good, so you heard some fancy new telephone was announced by a computer company that nearly went bankrupt not so long ago? Then you're all up to speed! All up to speed, except, for the new Apple iPhone's new television advertisement. So here you go. Enjoy the Robert Downey Jr. voiceover.
Scott Raab, who has the enviable job of annoying celebrities for a living, has a new book out, Real Hollywood Stories, which means he's on a press tour to convince you his book is worth buying even though you already live in a world of gossip blogs and reality TV, where celebrity isn't celebrated, but a bought-and-sold commodity. So how to do so? By revealing how he got Robert Downey Jr. to discuss carpet munching. CONTINUED »
After seeing the trailer for wartime action-comedy Tropic Thunder, Stereohyped editor Lauren Williams no longer finds herself concerned with Robert Downey Jr. in blackface. Even though he's in blackface, he's just playing a guy who thinks it's okay to wear blackface. And that's okay. Just don't dress up as him for Halloween. [Stereohyped]
Robert Downey Jr is in blackface for his new role in the Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder. Before you summarily condemn him, note that unlike the Afrocentric Angelina Jolie’s turn in A Mighty Heart, Downey Jr isn’t portraying a character of color; he’s playing a white actor named Kirk Lazarus who’s stupidly cast as a black soldier.
Are celebrities making a mockery of rehabilitation programs by appearing not to take the treatment seriously? Addiction experts and CNN seem to think so!
"It is making a mockery of rehabs," agrees Harris Stratyner, a psychologist with Caron, a nonprofit addiction treatment organization.
Sure, that's one boring medical expert's opinion, but what do the completely unqualified (and clearly biased) celebrity weekly news editors have to say about all of this?
Fortunately, our favorite ubiquitous fake-newsbuster Janice Min was on hand to offer mock sympathy and provide the obligatory "it's heartwrenching, but great for sales!" perspective.
• Robert Downey Jr. is speaking about his wedding weekend feud with Ron Perelman and Ellen Barkin, but he says his location switch had less to do with their photo policy on the estate and more to do with their wishes for unhappiness.
• Lindsay Lohan tried reaching out to foe Hilary Duff, only to have the starlet's sister hang up on her. Hmm, perhaps she's trying to reconcile in time for their Bad Girls shoot?
• Today show laugh track Al Roker hasn't been seen in two weeks, even with the country's biggest meteorological event taking place. Rumor had it he was just sick, but publicist Howard Rubenstein now says he's going in for "minor back surgery."
• Jennifer Lopez and Bordertown co-star Antonia Banderas are said to be elevating their professional on-set relationship to something a little more flirtatious, naturally pissing off Melanie Griffith's lips and Marc Anthony's skeleton.
• If Naomi Campbell can't slap you in person, she'll do it on a T-shirt. But the joke landed fashionisto Mal Sirrah on her blacklist with his shirt "Naomi slapped me… (on the front) and I slapped that bitch back! (on the back)," though Naomi's camp says it's more PR stunt than fact.
• Andre 3000 may not eat meat but he's got no problem killing animals for the sake of fashion. He's cutting off the tails of the endangered gray wolf to push his latest fashion must-have.
• It turns out Suge Knight shot himself at Kanye West's MTV VMA party, which makes us less keen on feeling sympathetic.
• Not only did Robert Downey Jr. move his nuptials with Susan Levin from Ron Perelman and Ellen Barkin's Georgica Pond estate to an undisclosed Amagansett locale, but he didn't even invite his almost-hosts to the Saturday wedding! Downey arranged to sell pics of the wedding to Richard Desmond's OK! magazine, but Perelman refused to let any snaps of his Creeks spread to be circulated.
• Jennifer Aniston's home invader David Hesterbey faces six years in prison if convicted, though right now he's pleading innocent. Meanwhile, Vinnie Vaughn's girl secured a restraining order against him.
• Mad magazine is looking at a surprising rise in readership (must be that Jon Stewart) and is riding its success with the launch of two new titles: MadKids and Mad Classics.
• Jon Stewart's new set loses the couch and, supposedly, turned the Daily Show host more ornery with his questions growing more "probing and incisive." Just like a real fake journalist.
• Was Simon Dumenco on to something? It seems boring advertising isn't just hitting September magazines, but major papers as well.
• Not only has Grammy winning record producer Christian Julian Irwin gone missing, but as luck would have it, his disappearance might be tied to that Nigerian email scheme. Thank god we've got a spam filter.
• While tennis ace Maria Sharapova isn't fighting rumors she's seeing Maroon 5's Adam Levine, her wranglers were in a tizzy when another rumored flame, Andy Roddick, popped up at the launch party for her new fragrance. Publicists insisted they weren't to be photographed together.
• Larry King's "worthwhile" interview with Stacked's Pamela Anderson asked the hard questions, such as "What size are your breasts" and do "they expand on camera?"
• Robert Downey Jr. and fiance Susan Levin won't be marrying at Ron Perelman's East Hampton spread, thanks to people like us publicizing the event. Instead they'll be getting hitched at an undisclosed locale in Amagansett.
• Suburban fashionisto Marc Ecko is watching his Complex magazine masthead crumble, with executive editor Savas Abadsidis quitting just after EIC Jimmy Jellinek flew the coup along with other top staffers.
• Lindsay Lohan was once again spotted with Bruce Willis, giving more heat to the rumors that ex-wife Demi Moore isn't the only cradle robber.
• Lucyna Turyk-Wawrynowicz, the housekeeper of Robert De Niro's wife Grace Hightower, says she intentionally stole from those who were disrespectful, which is why she didn't lift anything from Isabella Rossellini.
• The Apprentice cruise has got former cast members of the reality show flummoxed by fans' obsessions with their lives. Us too, as they're 15 minutes ended at least 20 minutes ago.
• Kate Moss dropped $3 million on a new condo in L.A., rumored to be a way for her to ditch trouble-making boyfriend Pete Doherty.
• Speaking of ditching, Clay Aiken put his L.A. pad on the market as he returns home to North Carolina — where the closets are much darker.
• Robert Downey Jr. will be skipping this weekend's MTV VMA's to wed Susan Levin at Ron Perelman's estate in East Hampton.
• Kathy and Rick Hilton at Marquee in the wee hours of the night? Suddenly Butter seems hip again.
• Now you can wear The O.C., thanks to an exclusive deal with Amazon.com. So get to TJ with your tin of pills wearing a sequin tube top just like Marissa!
Editorial Director
