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A likely forgotten 2018 action thriller movie starring Gerard Butler and Oscar-winner Gary Oldman has found a new streaming home. Hunter Killer is now streaming on Peacock and stars Common and Linda Cardellini.

Butler plays American submarine Captain Joe Glass in Hunter Killer,and is searching for a United States sub that appears to be in distress in the Arctic Ocean. Glass then realizes that a secret Russian coup is about to happen, and a conspiracy threatens to break down the world order. Glass then has to round up a group of elite Navy SEALs to covertly sneak through enemy waters and rescue the Russian president who has been kidnapped - all in an effort to prevent World War III.

Hunter Killer grossed just $31.6 million worldwide against a budget of $40 million, per Box Office Mojo. It currently has a “rotten” 38% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 115 critics’ reviews. Its audience score is...

Ever since the days of vaudeville (and long before that even), entertainment seekers have enjoyed the work of child actors. Good child actors, that is. A bad child performance can throw a dent into the most sturdiest of productions, and there must be a ring of hell occupied by the person who came up with the idea of school holiday pageants.

While we're on the topic of the holidays, and in the interest of steering this back toward the merry side of things, how about that Peter Billingsley? He's practically the Child King of December thanks to his indelible portrayal of Ralphie Parker in Bob Clark's 1983 classic "A Christmas Story." If you weren't around back then, Billingsley was anything but an unknown quality. He'd assaulted our living rooms during Saturday morning cartoon commercial breaks as the Hershey's chocolate syrup mascot Messy Marvin (he made a mess when he...

All October long, Cracked is catching up with some of the greatest writers in Simpsons history to discuss the most beloved segments from the “Treehouse of Horror” series. From the cursed Monkey’s Paw to Krusto the Clown, we’re digging into the making of some real fan-favorites.

Season 34’s “Treehouse of Horror Xxxiii” features perhaps the most meta “Treehouse” segment ever: “Simpsons World.” It begins with a clip from the legendary “Marge vs. the Monorail,” in which Homer is explaining to his family how the monorail works. The scene goes on as normal until Marge discovers a family of possums living on the monorail, and just as Homer is about to utter the classic line, “I call the big one Bitey,” two frat dudes jump in and say the line with him. They then pour beer down Homer’s throat.

Play

It’s quickly revealed that this is a...

Renowned fitness guru Richard Simmons has died at the age of 76 on July 13, 2024.

The weight loss guru, born Milton Teagle Simmons, passed away at his Los Angeles home just two days after celebrating his birthday.

Authorities responded to a call from his housekeeper shortly before 10 a.m. on Saturday and pronounced him dead at the scene, according to TMZ.

No foul play is suspected, and police are treating it as a natural death.

In recent weeks, Simmons had been active on social media, expressing gratitude for the birthday wishes he received.

He wrote, “Thank you… I never got so many messages about my birthday in my life! I am sitting here writing emails. Have a most beautiful rest of your Friday.”

His last social media update was published today with a post reading, “Hello gorgeous! Please don’t rain on my parade.”

Hello gorgeous! Please don’t rain on my parade.

Richard Simmons, the energetic, frizzy-haired TV personality and fitness coach who made exercise accessible to millions and then became reclusive in recent years, has died. He was 76.

Simmons died at his home in Los Angeles on Saturday, one day after his birthday. A representative confirmed Simmons’ death to ABC News.

On Friday, Simmons posted a message on social media thanking his fans for the birthday wishes.

“Thank you…I never got so many messages about my birthday in my life!” Simmons wrote. “I am sitting here writing emails. Have a most beautiful rest of your Friday.”

In early 2017, the “Missing Richard Simmons” podcast, produced by a former friend, delved into his life and career history and tried to discover why he had completely retreated from the public view after living most of his life in the public eye. The podcast covered the stories that had circulated questioning whether he was...

For the 2022 iPhone App of the Year, things are getting real. Voodoo, a video game company best known for its library of mobile titles, has acquired social app BeReal.

The deal, which comes with an estimated price tag of €500 million (~$542.4 million), unites two Paris-based companies in the tech sector. Voodoo, which publishes casual games like Helix Jump and Hole.io, will add BeReal to its list of holdings. Voodoo’s games have been downloaded more than six billion times as of 2022.

BeReal has cooled off considerably since its hot start. The app first drew attention with its unique content model, which delivers daily, time-sensitive notifications that prompt users to share authentic snapshots of their daily activities. As the novelty of that format wore off, BeReal’s daily active user count declined. According to the New York Times, which cited data from Sensor Tower, BeReal’s DAUs fell by 61% between October...

Move over, David Ellison, because here comes Byron Allen.

The media mogul and owner of The Weather Channel has made a $30 billion offer for the debt and equity of Paramount Global, Deadline has confirmed tonight.

The official word from Allen Media Group: “Mr. Byron Allen did submit a bid on behalf of Allen Media Group and its strategic partners to purchase all of Paramount Global’s outstanding shares. We believe this $30 billion offer, which includes debt and equity, is the best solution for all of the Paramount Global shareholders, and the bid should be taken seriously and pursued.”

Bloomberg first had the news about Allen’s bid.

All of this noise comes as the media postulates that Ellison’s Skydance is making an imminent play for Shari Redstone’s stake in National Amusements, the trojan horse into owning Paramount Global. Despite all the headlines about “inching” toward a deal,...

BeReal is onboarding some high-profile users. Beginning on February 6, the app’s users will be able to follow celebrities and brands so that posts from those accounts show up next to posts from friends.

The features, titled RealPeople and RealBrands, will allow celebrities and companies to interact with the app’s broader community. By becoming RealFans, as BeReal puts it, users can engage in “unique ways.” They can connect their uploads to RealPeople and RealBrands by tagging them, and the onboarded stars can return the favor by sharing fan content.

BeReal emerged as one of the breakout apps of 2022 when it bucked social media conventions in favor of randomly-timed, sparsely-edited posts. Many users (including the Potus himself) found that approach refreshing, but BeReal’s leadership team has known for a while that it will need revenue-generating features to keep up in the competitive app economy. In September 2022, just two months...

When Byron Allen was just 14, he started doing stand-up comedy. Four years later, in 1979, he became the youngest comedian to appear on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.” It was a launching pad for an entertainment career that included a stint on “Real People,” a lead role in “Case Closed,” a TV movie he co-wrote and a syndicated late-night show bearing his name.

But all along, Allen had his eyes on a much bigger prize. “Growing up in Detroit, I was fascinated by Berry Gordy and Henry Ford,” says Allen. “I read about them and about John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. They were my heroes. I studied them and knew I wanted to build something big and iconic. That was always my desire.”

That something proved to be Allen Media Group, which encompasses Entertainment Studios (founded 30 years ago as Cf Entertainment) and its expanding portfolio — the company owns 10 cable networks,...

Exclusive: For as long as anyone can remember, the broadcast networks have culled together fall preview specials in hopes of drumming up interest in their new sitcoms and dramas. Ratings for these inexpensive one-offs have certainly waned over the past decade, but there was always a decent amount of viewers who tuned into the full-of-promise clip shows that were hosted by network talent.

“We always would put them on and go, ‘Oh, I don’t know if anyone’s going to watch this,’” remembers one longtime scheduling executive. “But then they were watched by like 3 million people. They were never the lowest rated shows of the week, that’s for sure.”

There will be no such previews this year — another side effect of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that have already snuffed out any semblance of the fall launch on September 25. And that’s on top of Fox’s strike-related...

Mark Russell, the political satirist who delivered his wisecracks to the tunes of his piano on PBS specials for nearly 30 years, died today of prostate cancer at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 90.

His death was announced to the Washington Post by his wife Alison Russell.

Russell, sporting a bow tie and standing behind a usually flag-draped piano, was a staple of PBS from 1975 to 2004, where his bipartisan jabs and jaunty playing melded with the gently intellectual tone of the network. With a persona and style closer to Will Rogers than Lenny Bruce, Russell was an affable TV presence whose topical observations offered a family-friendly alternative during an era when George Carlin was saying seven dirty words and Saturday Night Live was making pot jokes.

Still, his amenable demeanor could serve as Trojan Horse for his most pointed and ego-deflating quips. After the exposure of President Bill Clinton’s sexual peccadillos,...

Piano-playing comedian and political satirist Mark Russell died Thursday at the age of 90, his wife Ali Russell said.

For more than 50 years, Russell took shots at all sectors of the political spectrum with stand-up monologues and song parodies. He was best known for his PBS specials, which he taped six times a year from 1975 to 2004. His routines, which he sang and performed on piano, covered the latest political news with timely lyrical updates of classic songs.

Russell was a member of the National Comedy Center Advisory Board, and was remembered by fellow member Jon Stewart, who said, “Mark Russell was a DC institution who did the hardest thing a comic can do… relentlessly and righteously mock his neighbors.”

Also Read:

Jon Stewart Says Half of GOP Campaigning Against Critical Race Theory Don’t Mean It: ‘They Think It’s an Appeal to Emotion’

“Mark Russell transformed the landscape of political humor in America and,...

Mark Russell, the sly satirist who skewered America’s political elite for more than a half-century by blending stand-up comedy with biting song parodies, died Thursday. He was 90.

Russell died at his home in Washington of complications from prostate cancer, his wife, Alison, told The Washington Post.

Perhaps best known for his series of one-man PBS comedy specials that aired from 1975-2004, Russell also served as one of the hosts of the popular 1979-83 NBC reality program Real People, and he wrote a syndicated column for the Los Angeles Times for several years.

However, he was most at home in front of a live audience, and he spent two decades on the speaking circuit, hitting his peak in 2000 when he racked up 100 appearances in 100 different cities.

“Mark Russell was a D.C. institution who did the hardest thing a comic can do … relentlessly and righteously mock his neighbors,” Jon Stewart said in a statement.

A die-hard Pittsburgh Steelers fan jumps the wall at the 1979 Super Bowl to watch his favorite team, a Muslim teen girl (comedian-attorney Yasmin Elhady) conquers 9/11 adversity and wins over students at an Alabama high school to become class president, and a working-class guy is slowed down by the cops in his blitz to get his pregnant girlfriend her ideal dessert (a Maple Butter Blondie) from Applebee’s.

Such are the tales, all true, on Warner Horizon TV and Peacock’s True Story With Ed & Randall, on which hosts and executive producers Ed Helms and Randall Park sit down with a guest (sometimes two) and hear them tell outrageous, but oh-so-true stories from their lives.

Contenders TV Docs + Unscripted — Deadline’s Complete Coverage

Part of the conceit of the show, which is based on an Australian format, is that Helms and Park haven’t heard their guests’ great yarns before. “Ed...

Nedaa Sweiss, co-showrunner of The Tonight Show, is staying in the NBCUniversal family.

Sweiss has struck an overall deal with Universal Television in addition to continuing her role on the NBC late-night series.

She will develop new scripted projects for broadcast, cable and streaming platforms.

It comes after Sweiss, who is one of the youngest showrunners of a late-night show, developed a couple of broadcast projects last year.

She developed multi-camera comedy Middle Class Murdochs, a family comedy set in an Ohio carpet store, with writer Jonathan Adler for CBS, via CBS Studios, and neighbors single-camera comedy Real People, which she worked with Late Night director Nisha Ganatra, Ruben Fleischer and David Bernad’s The District and ABC Signature on.

Prior to this, she served as head writer of The Tonight Show and was a writer on The Late Late Show with James Corden.

“So many of my favorite shows...

Every film presents unique production problems, and Searchlight’s “Nomadland” had a high degree of difficulty. Writer-director Chloé Zhao and her team wanted total authenticity as they filmed nomads who travel from job to job in the U.S. Southwest.

Production challenges included multiple locations, changeable weather, a small crew, a limited budget — and accommodating the nomads, who were playing versions of themselves, with no acting experience.

“We were there to follow them, and let them lead their lives,” says Peter Spears, one of the producers. “They didn’t all move together. Everyone had a different schedule. Some had family obligations or medical things to attend to; sometimes people would suddenly peel off to a job.”

Zhao — another of the film’s five producers — had written a tight narrative script, inspired by the nonfiction book by Jessica Bruder. The director and her team followed her script but with room for spontaneity.

Exclusive: CBS has given a put pilot commitment to The Smart One, a hybrid sisters comedy from Carol’s Second Act creators Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins. The network also has put in development a second comedy from Halpern and Haskins – multi-cam Middle Class Murdochs with The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon co-showrunner Nedaa Sweiss and writer Jonathan Adler. CBS Studios is the studio for both projects.

Written and executive produced by Halpern and Haskins, The Smart One revolves around two sisters who are reunited when the smart one – who was supposed to be successful – moves in with the screw-up, who actually became a success.

Written by Sweiss and Adler, in Middle Class Murdochs, the owner of a successful carpet store in Ohio is retiring, so he must decide which of his four grown children will take over the family business.

Sweiss and Adler executive produce with Halpern and Haskins.

ABC is developing a single-camera comedy “Borderline” about a “whirlwind romance” that is interrupted when one of the two lovers gets deported.

The comedy project is set at ABC Signature and comes from Chris Encell, a Latinx writer who serves as a co-producer for Netflix’s “On My Block” and was a writer for two seasons on NBC’s “The Good Place.” Encell is also a producer on Fox’s animated comedy “Housebroken.”

Here is the logline for the project:

After goody two-shoes Steve falls for reckless Maria, their whirlwind romance is cut short when she gets deported. Now they must decide whether to bail on the potential love of their lives or take a leap of faith and get married. Can two completely different people who barely know each other live happily ever after? Absolutely not, but they’re going to try.

Danny Chun is also an executive producer on the project.

ABC is developing a sitcom about families returning to “everyday life” after lockdown, TheWrap has learned.

The single-camera comedy, titled “Real People,” follows a group of “diverse neighboring families who grew close during the lockdown as they struggle to return to everyday life in their own comedic ways,” according to the series logline.

Nedaa Sweiss, a veteran of “The Late Late Show With James Corden” and head writer of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” will serve as writer and executive producer on the project from ABC Signature.

“Transparent” veteran Nisha Ganatra is attached to direct and executive produce via her company Ladies’ Car Productions. David Bernad and Ruben Fleischer of The District also serve as executive producers on the comedy.

“We love Nedaa and we love this show,” Ganatra said in a statement. “She’s built a rich, cross-cultural world that is both universal and specific. It brings together...

ABC is developing a comedy with the current coronavirus predicament at the heart of it.

The single-camera project in question is called “Real People,” and hails from ABC Signature and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” writer Nedaa Sweiss (pictured).

“Real People” follows diverse neighboring families who grew close during the lockdown as they struggle to return to everyday life in their own comedic ways.

Sweiss will serve as a writer and executive producer on the project, with “Better Things” producer and “Transparent” director Nisha Ganatra on board as a non-writing exec producer via her Ladies’ Car Productions banner.

“We love Nedaa and we love this show. She’s built a rich, cross-cultural world that is both universal and specific. It brings together some of our favorite things–humor, strong & differing points of view, and themes of family and friendship,” said Ganatra in a statement. “With ABC’s track record of making fresh,...

ABC has put in development Real People, a single-camera comedy from Nedaa Sweiss (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon), The High Note and Late Night director Nisha Ganatra, Ruben Fleischer and David Bernad’s The District and ABC Signature, where Ganatra is under a deal.

Written by Sweiss and to be directed by Ganatra, Real People follows diverse neighboring families who grew close during the lockdown as they struggle to return to everyday life in their own comedic ways.

Sweiss executive produces with Ganatra via her Ladies’ Car Productions. Bernad and Fleischer executive produce for The District. ABC Signature, a part of Disney Television Studios, is the studio.

“We love Nedaa and we love this show,” said Ganatra. “She’s built a rich, cross-cultural world that is both universal and specific. It brings together some of our favorite things–humor, strong & differing points of view, and themes of family and friendship.

Former Tonight Show head writer Nedaa Sweiss is setting her sights on primetime.

ABC is developing a comedy called Real People from Sweiss. The single-camera show from ABC Signature follows diverse neighboring families who grew close during the lockdown as they struggle to return to everyday life in their own comedic ways.

Sweiss is writing the project and will executive produce along with director Nisha Ganatra (via her Ladies’ Car Productions and David Bernad and Ruben Fleischer of The District.

“We love Nedaa and we love this show. She’s built a rich, cross-cultural world that is both universal and specific,” said Ganatra (Late ...

Former Tonight Show head writer Nedaa Sweiss is setting her sights on primetime.

ABC is developing a comedy called Real People from Sweiss. The single-camera show from ABC Signature follows diverse neighboring families who grew close during the lockdown as they struggle to return to everyday life in their own comedic ways.

Sweiss is writing the project and will executive produce along with director Nisha Ganatra (via her Ladies’ Car Productions and David Bernad and Ruben Fleischer of The District.

“We love Nedaa and we love this show. She’s built a rich, cross-cultural world that is both universal and specific,” said Ganatra (Late ...

Fred Willard, best known for his roles in Best in Show, This Is Spinal Tap, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Modern Family, died of natural causes at the age of 86, according to Variety.

“It is with a heavy heart that I share the news my father passed away very peacefully last night at the fantastic age of 86 years old,” his daughter Hope Willard tweeted on Saturday. “He kept moving, working and making us happy until the very end. We loved him so very much! We will miss him forever.”

Willard first came into national consciousness as the sidekick to Martin Mull’s host on the nightly Fernwood 2 Night. He is well known as part of the revolving troupe of actors – including Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy – assembled by director Christopher Guest.

“How lucky that we all got to enjoy Fred Willard’s gifts,” Guest’s wife,...

Fred Willard, who parlayed a knack for naive characters into costarring roles on the television series Fernwood 2 Night and Everybody Loves Raymond and in several memorable films, has died. He was 86 and his death was confirmed by his agent, Michael Eisenstadt.

“Fred was one of the busiest comedic actors in a career which lasted over 50 years,” Eisenstadt said in a note. “He had recently completed his Emmy nominated recurring role on Modern Family and can be seen later this month in his recurring role as Steve Carrell’s dad in the Netflix series Space Force. Jimmy Kimmel had Fred recur on his show on an average of every two weeks doing comedic sketches until the stay-at-home order began. Fred truly enjoyed every role and gave each performance his own special spin. He was truly a comedic genius.”

Emmy-nominated for three consecutive years for his role as father-in-law Hank MacDougall...

Fred Silverman, the legendary television producer and executive behind such groundbreaking shows as All in the Family, Soap and Hill Street Blues, and the only executive to creatively run CBS, ABC and NBC, died Thursday at his home in Pacific Palisades. He was 82.

Silverman’s knack for identifying hit shows in the making and programming them into memorable primetime nights led Time magazine to crown him “The Man with the Golden Gut” in 1977.

“There are a lot of things that I can point to that I think are proud achievements,” Silverman said in a 2001 interview with the TV Academy Foundation. “Most importantly, I had the opportunity to kind of stretch the medium a little bit, to do some things that had never been done before.”

Watch a clip from his sit-down with Dan Pasternak for the foundation’s “The Interviews” series below.

Born on September 13, 1937, in New York City, Silverman...

After buying MGM in 1986, legendary media mogul Ted Turner marveled that go-go media moguls are celebrated for being so rich, while their bankers constantly remind them that they owe a fortune.

“That’s exactly right,” chuckles Byron Allen of the parallels to his company Entertainment Studios, founded 25 years ago as Cf Entertainment. “And Ted’s one of my heroes.”

The standup comic-turned-Hollywood entrepreneur has built his privately owned company into a sizable entertainment enterprise with 650 employees. His burgeoning empire spans basic cable TV networks, over-the-top video streaming channels, motion pictures, TV production/syndication and digital media.

Two events in the past year provided transformative leaps: Allen acquired basic cable network the Weather Channel in March for a reported $300 million, and then lined up a $500 million credit line in September that can fuel more expansion. It is estimated that adding the Weather Channel lifted Entertainment Studios — solely owned by Allen — to about $600 million in annualized revenue.

Decades before leading his own multi-million media empire Entertainment Studios, Byron Allen was a teenage kid with a dream, standing in the parking lot of The Comedy Store on Sunset Blvd., watching his stand-up mentors go up on stage.

As Jim Carrey tweeted today, “If she loved you, you did well. If she didn’t, you did something else,” and Allen was one of the guys who did quite well by Shore. Not only was The Comedy Store the place where Jimmie Walker first recognized the young stand-up and enlisted him on his comedy writing team, but it’s also where Allen was first spotted by NBC talent scouts for his Tonight Show debut at 18 years-old and his long-running hosting stint alongside Fred Willard, Sarah Purcell, and Skip Stephenson on the network’s Emmy-winning reality comedy series Real People.

Allen met Comedy Store matriarch Mitzi Shore when he was 14 years old during the ’70s.

Sunday Pm update: At a time when streaming is encroaching on certain cinema genres and sending them to mobile screens, Entertainment Studios is looking to keep moviegoing alive on the big screen.

This weekend the $4M TIFF acquisition that Entertainment Studios’ chief Byron Allen made for Scott Cooper’s western Hostiles paid off with a $10M-$11M wide opening, easily besting tracking’s low single-digit projections.

Even more impressive, Hostiles beat the weekend results of all the big studio Oscar-nominated titles, many of which also went wide, i.e. The Shape of Water and Phantom Thread.

“It’s nice when your competitors call you and say ‘Wow, we were wrong, you were right,'” beamed Allen who literally made his minimum guarantee on Hostiles back this weekend in its film rental.

“Although we are an independent, we are throwing punches like a major studio,” said Allen about his commitment to...

The surprise success of shark movie “47 Meters Down” may be the best thing that ever happened to Byron Allen — or, the worst. His Entertainment Studios bought the title moments before Dimension Films shipped the inventory for its DVD premiere, and — with the help of some $30 million in P&A — it made $43 million at the box office this summer.

Now, Allen has spent the last month on a spending spree. Most recently, it’s “Hostiles,” Scott Cooper’s $50 million-budgeted Western starring Christian Bale that premiered at Toronto. The purchase price is unknown, but he’s reportedly committed to an Oscar-qualifying December release and about $15 million in P&A. That’s in addition to “Chappaquiddick,” another Toronto-Oscar title ($4 million acquisition, $16 million P&A) and Keanu Reeves’ sci-fi thriller “Replicas,” which cost $4 million for North America and is not an Oscar title, but comes with the promise of a wide release.

For the struggling indie film market,...

HollywoodNews.com: Filmmaking and the environment converge at the 3rd annual Cinema Verde Environmental Film & Arts Festival in Gainesville next week, Friday February 24th – Friday, March 2nd. The event, presented by GoGreenNation.org, features 25 environmental films, an Eco Fair, Eco Artwalk and “Vintage Verde,” a fashion show featuring recycled couture.

“We’re thrilled to be entering into our 3rd annual,” said Trish Riley, Founding Director of Cinema Verde. “We’re moving into an era that’s requiring more environmental conservation and sustainability than ever, and what better way to get the message across than presenting environmental causes in artful and entertaining ways?”

Cinema Verde is an opportunity for the community to learn more about sustainable solutions, how their decisions impact the environment and what each can do to make a difference. Film from all over the world will be shown with many directors on hand to facilitate discussions after screenings.

This Fall's hit thriller The Town, directed by Ben Affleck, is coming to DVD and Blu-ray on Dec 17, 2010 - just in time for the Holiday. The film also features Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and Blake Lively (Gossip Girl). The Town Blu-ray (Extended Cut Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy Special Features: - Ben's Boston" with 6 Focus Points: "The Cathedral of Boston," "Pulling Off the Perfect Heist," "The Town," "The Real People of the Town," "Nuns with Guns: Filming in the North End," and "Ben Affleck: Director & Actor." - Director's Commentary - Theatrical Version - Director's Commentary - Extended Cut The Town DVD Special Features: - Ben's Boston" with 6 Focus Points: "The Cathedral of Boston," "Pulling Off the Perfect Heist," "The Town," "The Real People of the Town," "Nuns with Guns: Filming in the North End," and "Ben Affleck: Director & Actor." - Director's Commentary -...

A young Stefani Germanotta plays a harassed teen in instructional video.

By James Montgomery

Lady Gaga

Photo: Gabriel Bouys/ Getty Images

By now, we all know that Lady Gaga has never been afraid to speak her mind, but it turns out Stefani Germanotta isn't either.

That's just one of the things we learned in "Real People — Sexual Harassment: What You Can Do," an educational video produced by the San Francisco-based Cerebellum Corporation that features a young Germanotta — still years away from becoming Gaga — as a student who is harassed ... and isn't about to take it.

Germanotta doesn't have any lines in the video, or at least not in the minute-long version posted on YouTube. But she definitely makes an impact in her brief scene (at the 0:40 mark), in which she walks out of a classroom — resplendent in a long-sleeved white shirt, blue skirt and, uh, clogs — and is grabbed...

by Vadim Rizov

Everyone who sees David Fincher's The Social Network feels they have an opinion that simply must be counted, a piece of context no one else does. That kind of urge to spontaneously fact-check rarely happens: most mainstream studio releases are so out of touch with the real world they might as well be science-fiction. Consider Life As We Know It, Friday's upcoming Katherine Heigl-Josh Duhamel rom-com in which the mutually loathing pair are brought together when friends die and leave them tasked with care of the leftover baby, at which point they dutifully fall in love. It's a premise so outlandish it might as well be a parallel universe documentary about the mating habits of Martians.

Continued reading 500 Million Opinions...

Comments (3)

Comments on this Entry:

(Nathan on Oct 14, 2010 5:02 Pm) This is great. Two questions: In the sequence you refer to where Zuckerberg drunkenly creates facebook,...

The A-List: New York's Reichen Lehmkuhl

In our parent company Logo's new reality show The A-List: New York, a “docu-soap” about the lives and loves of six social-climbing gay men, there’s a scene where Reichen Lehmkuhl is about to have sex with his boyfriend in a hot tub.

“Oops,” says the boyfriend, Brazilian model Rodiney Santiago, as he slips his swimsuit off.

But just as things are really steaming up, Reichen’s cellphone rings. When he climbs out of the tub to answer it, it turns out it’s Austin Armacost, one of the other A-List-ers – the guy that the show has clearly telegraphed is going to try to come between Reichen and Rodiney over the course of the season.

Austin tells Reichen he wants them to go out to dinner, even as Rodiney sits stewing in the hot tub.

The A-List: New York's Rodiney Santiago

Is there any...

The one, the only, Robert Nolan is the ultimate chameleon slipping in and out of roles with such ease. He has appeared in dozens of short films including some genre fare like Richard Powell's "Worm", Ryan M. Andrews's "The Devil Walks Among You", and Daniel Reininghaus's "Eyes Beyond" to name a few. We got the chance to ask this incredibly talented actor a few questions. Here is what he had to say.

So for those unfamiliar with you, who is Robert Nolan and what are you all about?

Aside from knowing my own name and that I exist on this planet right now, exactly who I am remains as mysterious a world to me as you are to you. Does anyone really know exactly who they are and what they are all about?The depths of the interior human are as infinite as the universe our bodies inhabit.

This week will see the release of I'm Still Here, the "documentary" in which Joaquin Phoenix feigns lunacy for a year to the amusement of no one, save for himself and Casey Affleck.

Not unlike most things we here on the internet diatribe about, I've not yet seen the movie. But I do know it is the latest example of a somewhat infuriating genre: the fucking-with-civilians-as-comedy genre.

For about a year, Joaquin Phoenix just screwed with people. He grew his hair out, Grizzly Adams-style, and rapped and was weird. He made people uncomfortable for fun and called it art. So what's the line between art and just being an asshole?

Here's where I'm about to get really unpopular: this is how I feel about Sacha Baron Cohen.

As ideas, I appreciate both Borat and Bruno, less so Ali G, as it spent a lot of time making not-necessarily deserving people feel awkward.

Kevin Kline is misunderstood. His performances on stage and screen over the past four decades are so seamless that audiences often attribute his characters’ traits to him. That is, of course, a tricky proposition that he observes with a healthy dose of humor.

Kline mused on the topic and several more in an interview leading up to the release of The Extra Man, which opened in several major markets this weekend as part of its continued national rollout. Hit the jump for the audio and transcript, along with tales of his love for Ricky Gervais, why he’d never run for President and John Cleese’s humorous take on Kline’s performance in The Big Chill.

Kevin Kline’s career path started on a piano bench. Born and raised in St. Louis, he entered the University of Indiana as a music major before a freshman year acting class convinced him to switch to theater.

Kick-Ass

At this point, is there anything left to say about Kick-Ass? Real people become vigilante superheroes. It's been done before, but this time, it's got a jaw-dropping Hit Girl, a role that's made one Chloe Moretz a sensation. In his review, Todd Gilchrist wrote: "as a full-length film, Kick-Ass is a great comic book come to life, but not much else. A faithful recreation of the rhythms of episodic funny-paper storytelling ... [it] never quite finds enough cohesion or dramatic clarity to become a fully satisfying film." If you're on the fence, you'll want to rent it, but for the rest, Buy it on DVD or Blu-ray

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

It's the story of a wimpy, wise-cracking kid making his way through middle school, but as John Gholson reviewed, it "should've been titled Diary of a Selfish, Dishonest Punk." He continues: "It...

Yesterday, Jezebel unearthed this nearly 30-year-old video from Real People chronicling the 1982 Miss Valley Girl Competition in Encino, Calif. Watch it to hear such “Val” expressions as “Bag your face!” and “Gag Me With a Spoon” screeched by Moon Unit Zappa in a decibel likely to attract the nearest canine, and you’ll begin to think those crazy Twilight kids are somewhat sane after all.

It’s hard to believe kids used to talk like this, but, then again, it’s also hard to believe that Nicolas Cage once had hair like this. (Then again, maybe it’s not.) Either way,...

Alexis Neiers, of the E! Entertainment reality show about the Hollywood social scene, Pretty Wild, was set free from the L.A. County Jail Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, Friday night. She had served 30 days of a 180-day sentence - or, as her publicist put it in a press release about her jail release, approximately 20 percent of her six-month jail term. Neiers, 19, was placed behind bars in early May after she pleaded no contest to felony burglary. She had been arrested last October in connection with a break-in at the Southern California home of Orlando Bloom. While incarcerated, Neiers, the...

'Love the Way You Lie' is #1 on BigChampagne's chart, which factors Internet popularity into its rankings.

By Kyle Anderson

Eminem

Photo: Robyn Beck/ Afp/ Getty Images

For half a century, the Billboard Hot 100 has been thought to be the most accurate bellwether of what the biggest songs are. Every week, it takes into account radio airplay and singles sales, puts those numbers into a complicated formula and determines which tracks are becoming ubiquitous and which ones are falling off.

But in the modern era, a song's airplay and sales numbers don't necessarily tell the whole story, as songs are streamed on YouTube, watched on MTV, posted to Facebook, downloaded through countless blogs and searched for on Google. With that in mind, BigChampagne — an organization that has spent years tracking music on the Internet — has come up with the Ultimate Chart, a listing that synthesizes the statistics from all the various...

Chicago – Incredible flyaway package! In our latest VIP edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have the chance to win a three-night flyaway trip to Fort Lauderdale for the new film “Dinner for Schmucks”!

“Dinner for Schmucks” stars Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Stephanie Szostak, Jemaine Clement, Zach Galifianakis, Lucy Punch, Bruce Greenwood, David Walliams and Ron Livingston from director Jay Roach and writers David Guion and Michael Handelman.

The flyaway package includes free airfare, hotel accommodations, car rental, dinner and complimentary admission to various area attractions for you and three of your friends! You and your friends could become “Lucky Schmucks” and head down to Florida in honor of:

One “Lucky Schmuck” will win a three-night trip for four to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. that includes:

Car rental for four days courtesy of:

Real time. Real people. Real Florida: FloridaLive at http://www.Visitflorida.com.

If you’re thinking about a Florida summer vacation,...

Academy Award winner George Clooney “gives the performance of his career” (Lou Lumenick, New York Post) in the smart, funny and thought-provoking film Up In The Air coming in for a landing on DVD and Blu-ray March 9, 2010 from Paramount Home Entertainment. Called “the movie of the year, the movie of the moment” (Tom Carson, GQ) and named by over 200 critics as one of the top 10 films of 2009, Up In The Air tells the story of a man discovering that life is not simply about the journey alone, but about the personal connections made along the way.

Co-written and directed by Oscar nominee Jason Reitman (Juno), Up In The Air received six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor (Clooney), Best Supporting Actress (Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick), Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film has already won a Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay and dozens of critics...

Paramount Home Video has announced writer/director Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air will be hitting DVD and Blu-ray on March 9. What’s great about the release is even though most studios love to frak us with the first release of a film on home video, the Blu-ray is loaded with deleted scenes and extras. The only negative is the DVD only has part of the extras, while the Blu-ray has everything.

If you never saw Up in the Air, the film received six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor (George Clooney), Best Supporting Actress (Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick), Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film has already won a Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. It’s one of my favorite films of the year and I can’t recommend it enough. Hit the jump for a full listing of the extras:

Up In The Air...

In Fort Pierce, Florida at the corner of 12th & Delaware, one of America’s most hot button issues is materialized into real life. Real people with real stories on both sides of the argument. At this crossroads of life and ideology, sits two buildings. On one side, an abortion clinic. On the other, a pro-life outfit.

Read more on Sundance 2010 Video Interview: Directors Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing (12th & Delaware)…...

Yeah, we've shown a lot of trailers for Kick-Ass. What of it? You calling us geeks? Fanboys? (*wipes snot off nose, wipes it on pant leg*) Fuck you, man! What do you know about us? I got laid last night. By a real person. Inyourface! (*puts down joystick*) Let me tell you something, all you cosmopolitan poseurs. Kick-Ass is gonna kick your ass. Fuck yeah! (*high fives self*) So take your fucking douchebag hipsterville crappolla art films, and cram 'em up your cramholes. Kick-Ass is about real people, man. Real people who want to save the world. Like you and me, except hotter. I bet they got laid twice last night. Holla!

Watch this trailer, Skillet Holmes. It's gonna do a number on you. It's gonna put you in a world of emotional pain, like the time that Barry Allen died in The Flash. You feeling me? Get Some 41!

(*picks...

"Synecdoche, New York" is the best film of the decade. It intends no less than to evoke the strategies we use to live our lives. After beginning my first viewing in confusion, I began to glimpse its purpose and by the end was eager to see it again, then once again, and I am not finished. Charlie Kaufman understands how I live my life, and I suppose his own, and I suspect most of us. Faced with the bewildering demands of time, space, emotion, morality, lust, greed, hope, dreams, dreads and faiths, we build compartments in our minds. It is a way of seeming sane.

The mind is a concern in all his screenplays, but in "Synecdoche" (2008), his first film as a director, he makes it his subject, and what huge ambition that demonstrates. He's like a

novelist who wants to get it all into the first book in case he never publishes another.

Lindsay Lohan, are you really in need of cash? That’s how it seems now that you, sister Ali, mom Dina, and brothers Cody and Michael Jr. are selling all of your stuff!

At LohanHouse.com, fans can buy Lindsay’s clothes, shoes, and handbags, along with stuff from her sister’s and mom’s closets … including “Marc Jacob” bags!

A Lohan source says, “Lindsay needs money … and the Lohans will do anything for money.”

But there is another reason for the sale. “Lindsay moved out of her house in La to a smaller apartment, and needs to get rid of a lot of stuff. She had a shopping addiction, and she gets more free clothes than any celebrity,” says the insider.

Lindsay and her family are also keeping fans up to date on what they are all up to, using the catchphrase, “Lohan House: Real people live here.”

So,...

Wowzas. We've been hot on Jon M. Chu's upcoming dance-laden web series The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers for a while now, but this is getting to a new level. The group appeared tonight on Fox's So You Think You Can Dance, and blew away the competition. These guys are Amazing. Seriously, watch the clip above from the show. (right now) We're starting to think this could be the first truly international blockbuster web series. And now that Paramount Digital has jumped on board with Agility Studios for a major online distribution push, it just might get there. No Special effects. No Wires. Real People, Real powers. We call this project The Lxd. “The Lxd allows us to evolve how we tell stories using dance while creating a platform for the best dancers in the world to do what they do best,” said Jon M. Chu. "For the past year,...