Weekend To Do – Rumors/News 11-02-07

Hi Everyone:

Here’s “What’s Happening” this weekend….

In Theaters (now WHY would I put this first???)

AMERICAN GANGSTER (8.8 outta 10 stars) – “I Smell Oscar”!

The Martian Child w/John Cusack

The Bee Movie (w/Jerry Seinfeld and many other stars)

Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (w/P.S. Hoffman, E. Hawke, A. Finney, M. Tomei) – Limited Release

Darfur Now (Don Cheadle)

Out On DVD this Week

Twin Peaks – The Definitive Gold Box Edition (The Complete Series)

Spider-Man 3 (2-Disc Special Edition)

License to Wed (Widescreen and Full-Screen) (Mandy Moore)

TV News

Bones on Fox – For those of us who ‘worshiped’ Freaks and Geeks years ago, the little boy who the show centered on (along with his family), has been signed on to Bones as a new, permanent member of the group. John Francis Daley plays Dr. Lance Sweets, a therapist, who tries to see if Bones and Booth should continue on as partners. He originally was signed to do a few shows but his character was so good that they decided to add him as a permanent fixture! Good for you Ben (I believe his name was Ben!).

Back To You – Signed for a full season

Pushing Daisies - Signed for a full season

Nip/Tuck is back on FX – Tuesdays at 10 (watch the timing though cause it tends to run over the hour mark). As well as Fridays and Sundays.

Fox has another drama up it’s sleeve and ready to go. Jeremy Renner will star in a drama called THE OAKS. The premise of this series is about 3 families – 1968 – a young couple living in THE OAKS lose a child; 1988 – a family of 4 and in 2008 – a couple who are pregnant. All living in the house named THE OAKS. The 2008 couple are haunted by a restless spirit. Renner will play Dan – the expectant dad. His wife is played by Bahar Soomekh.

MOVIE NEWS

Jonathan Rhys Meyers (can’t wait for August Rush to come out) has been signed to play the magician MANDRAKE (the King Features comic strip character). He will be directed by Chuck Russell. Mandrake is an extreme escape artist embroiled in international espionage. No date on when filming will start. Maybe after he tapes next season of The Tudors? (Jamie says…remember Billy Zane as The Phantom???? – ye of little faith, Jamie!)

OK, let’s go to NEWS

Mel Gibson showed up at the AMERICAN GANGSTER premiere this week. (hope you got to see Russell on Leno the other night…). Mel has been behind the scenes the past few years directing movies but has decided to step in front of the camera again. He will be starting a new film next year entitled, Under and Alone - a new police thriller.

Daniel Craig has signed a $60M deal for 4 James Bond films. He’s now filming Bond 22 (and will do 3 more). This could keep the franchise going for another ten years.

Peter Jackson (LOTR) has fired Ryan Gosling from his movie, The Lovely Bones and replaced him with Mark Wahlberg because he was too demanding. I’m sure Jackson will find Wahlberg easier to ‘mold’ into his role. It also stars Rachel Weisz. (after writing this item, I noticed that Ryan put out a statement saying that it was NOT because he was demanding but the fact that he is 26 and Wahlberg is 36 and the character is an older guy and it just wasn’t working). I’m sure there’s truth in both statements….

NEWS/STORIES/RUMORS

No Nic Cage story this week; however I DO have a Russell Crowe story.

Back in 1995, when Russell was doing a screen test with Denzel Washington to get a part in Virtuosity, they had a cyclone wire fence between them. Well Russell was really into the scene when some spit flew off his tongue onto Denzel’s lips. Russell was mortified but kept going and when the director called CUT, Denzel was heard to have said, “I love the taste of saliva in the morning!” Russell always remembered how cool Denzel was about it….

Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers) and Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) have named their daughter, Olive.

Angie preggers???? – She was supposed to appear in Italy this week at a Conference near Rimini and canceled at the last minute. “Rumor” has it that she is expecting. This would be child #5 for Angie and Brad who have both said they want a large family.

Ashley Olsen (21) and Lance Armstrong (36) an item???? Puhleez!

Owen Wilson and Jessica Simpson - another Puhleez!!!!!

Lane Garrison (of Prison Break - he played the young kid who escaped with the rest of the guys in Season One) – has been jailed for 40 months in relation to the vehicular manslaughter charge from December of 2006 in which a 17 year old girl was killed.

Lindsey Lohan was at a bar(!) last weekend and seemed to be having a fun time sipping on water…then her friends started to get a buzz on and she asked the bartender for a vodka. He refused because…are you ready for this one….her ‘people’ warned him that she would be there and not to serve her. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE??? What the heck is she doing at a bar in the first place after spending most of the summer in rehab getting clean?????

New Trailer out on WANTED with Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McEvoy… looks very exciting.One last thought…I watched CHILDREN OF MEN and CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER last weekend, On Demand. Clive Owen is the only good part of Children… don’t know what all the buzz was about it being a ‘great’ pic. Flower had Chow Yun Fat in it and I love him. However, it was subtitles (which I’ve come to shy away from in recent years) and the story line fell apart in the end. The scenery and photography were breathtaking though and a couple of the fight scenes were phenomenal. Too bad the story didn’t hold up!!!

Another thought – we lost Robert Goulet this past week. What a wonderful voice he had. I remember my older son Jonathan walking thru the house singing the “French” (C’est Moi?) song from Camelot years ago (he studied French in high school!). Will we ever forget the story of Elvis shooting up his TV with Robert on the Ed Sullivan show….he was really jealous of the guy!!!

Robert in the Salute to the 1962 Broadway Season

Guess that’s it for this week – It’s been a great one with the RED SOX winning the World Series. Papelbon is tooooo funny. Now, on to the PATRIOTS…do I see another Super Bowl in their future???? You betcha.

Have a great weekend everyone….I’ll be in the FRONT ROW on Sunday watching ‘my’ Russell!!!!!

Joanie

(hope all is well with you Robin Thicke!!!)