David Carr did a video blog for the New York Times. Fine. But why did he have to do it in a scary clown mask?! CONTINUED »
Holidays are a time for peace, love and joy between you and your kin. But it never really ends up that way, does it? Grandma forgets to take her meds, Mom takes too many meds and Dad ends up lighting the tree on fire while telling you how you're wasting you life. Good times!
But even in the most difficult household, you can still relish the fact that you aren't one of these media clans or A-list celebrity families, the kind with dirty trash that inevitably gets strewn all over Harvey Levin's lawn.
Below, seven reasons to be grateful for the family you have.
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Because damn, we all knew that Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight was going to shatter the box office this year, but the $996.8 million that movie made put it at least $22 million ahead of the second place winner, which was also a sequel of sorts.
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It seems like we should have heard about this earlier, say, during the theatrical release overseas, but: China has "passed" on the release of Chistopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, citing cultural sensitivity issues.
You knew this was going to be a problem the minute you saw the shots of Batman swinging around Hong Kong, treating Chinese financial swindler Lau to a bit of vigilante justice. But it somehow got swept under the radar until it was time to release Batman on DVD.
Christian Bale is British. So it Michael Caine. And so is Cillian Murphy, who played the Scarecrow in Batman Begins (actually, he's Irish). So basically, anything Batman-related (in the Christopher Nolan series, anyway) is going to first announced in the British papers, right?
So maybe that's why the UK's Sun is reporting this totally true and in no way verifiable tip that Eddie Murphy is going to play the Riddler in the upcoming Batman film. And the casting just gets better from there.
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Why is Warner Bros. so concerned about who might take the stage to accept Heath Ledger's posthumous Golden Globe, should he win? Because it may be their only chance to trumpet the Joker actor with a prestigious award. The studio supposedly wants Ledger's former lover Michelle Williams to accept the Globe on his behalf, according to R&M, while others say The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan or co-star Christian Bale should take the stage. And yet, Ledger's father Kim, who accepted an Aussie Award on his behalf last weekend, is also a contender. Their decision for the Globes acceptance is all the more important, since few foresee Ledger actually winning the grand prize, an Academy Award. CONTINUED »
Right on the tail of of Heath Ledger getting the Golden Globe nod, here are the stats for The Dark Knight's DVD sales. And they're nothing to joke about:
(The Dark Knight) sold nearly 3 million copies Tuesday, the first day of its DVD release in the U.S., Canada and Britain.
"The Dark Knight's" retail reception is reminiscent of strong first-day sales for "The Matrix" and "Titanic" (any debut of 1 million or more units is considered a home run). At the present rate, "Dark Knight" looks to be on pace to catch Paramount Pictures' "Iron Man," which sold 7.2 million units in its first week on store shelves this year.
As many as 25% to 30% of the "Dark Knight" discs sold — or 600,000 copies — were purchased in the Blu-ray format. That surpasses the previous record set by "Iron Man," which sold 260,000 Blu-ray discs upon its first day of release. [LAT]
Who said that Blu-ray was this generation's Laserdisks?
Twilight opened at $70 million this weekend at the box office, the highest opening gross ever for a female director (Catherine Hardwicke).
So lets see: that's $70 million to The Dark Knight's $155 mill?
Either women just really suck at making film, or gender inequality is still very much alive and kicking in Hollywood.
Full disclosure: I am obsessed with Aaron Eckhart. Back when everyone thought that Heath Ledger was going to suck as the Joker (and people did think this), I held out hope for The Dark Knight simply because Eckhart was so fundamentally right for the role of Two-Face. Think about it, no other actor so easily plays both heroes and villains; from the sleazy business exec conning a deaf woman in Neil Labute's In the Company of Men, to the big-hearted biker in Erin Brockovich, Aaron Eckhart is one of America's finest bass-mouthed actors.
So I was very pleased to watch him nail it on The Daily Show last night, where Jon Stewart lovingly ribbed Eckhart for his new role as a statutory rapist in Alan Ball's Towelhead. If only all child molesters looked more like Eckhart:
Heath Ledger was paying $22k for his loft in SoHo at the time of his death in January. Now, the apartment is back on the market, with a four thousand dollar boost in price. What's weird about this story of the post-postmortem rent increase is…..didn't the one of the Olsen twins own that apartment? (Yes, the listing price in that post is one grand less than the one that is quoted now.)
So did Mary-Kate jack the price of her Broome St. pad? If she's capable of such morbid decisions, you can't put it past her to purposely wait until the Dark Knight hit the theaters before putting the apartment back on the market to increase buzz.
That, or Little Olsen had nothing to do with the re-listing of the property, because she is too rich, too famous, and too thin to concern herself with such matters. That's what brokers are for. Brokers with incredibly bad taste or incredibly good timing.
