by Gossip Daddy on December 29, 2008
The Christmas Box Office had a bit of a surprise when Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson’s dog-love movie Marley & Me earned an estimated $37 million from 3,480 theaters for an average of $10,632 per location. That includes setting a Christmas Day record at $14.7 million, beating Will Smith’s Ali ($10.2 million). (Although, to be fair, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Adam Sandler’s family flick Bedtime Stories also broke the Ali record with $12 and $10.5 million respectively.) What does this mean for dearest Jennifer? Well, on the surface level, she beat her ex-lover Brad Pitt at the Christmas Box office with a sappy, family-friendly movie about loving a dog. And that’s got to feel good, especially since she did her best in the media to slag Angelina Jolie, leaving her real revenge for X-mas weekend, when Pitt came in behind Sandler with a Curiously lack-luster $27 mil. Bedtime Stories came in second with around $28 million, but who cares
by Gossip Daddy on December 22, 2008
Though the title of this post sounds kind of dirty, it’s actually a PR Hole. But PR Hole also sounds dirty, like BDSM Trench, so we might as well get to the ’splaining and stop all this ‘pologizing. Jeremy Piven dropped out of the David Mamet Play Speed The Plow because he had mercury toxicity caused by eating too much sushi for a prolonged period of time. If that sounded like a bullsh*t excuse to you last week, you’re about where the cast and crew of Speed The Plow are now… From Page Six : “Skeptical? You could certainly say we’re skeptical,” said one investor of Piven’s excuse.
by Gossip Daddy on December 3, 2008
This a continuation of yesterday’s Brief Absurdity, where Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert told his viewers and the Colbert Nation that “Operation Humble Kanye” will be taking place TODAY, Wednesday, December 3rd, at 5PM EST. At that time, Colbert asks that you log into the iTunes store and buy his Christmas album, A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All. The goal is to knock Kanye West down a notch by usurping the number one iTunes spot from his album 808s and Heartbreak. Thing is, Britney’s Circus did that yesterday mere hours after her Good Morning America performance
by Gossip Daddy on December 2, 2008
How’s this for something really, really stupid? Around late-March of this year, Sean Gleason, senior VP of the brand action team at Cadbury Schweppes decided that he really wanted to hear Chinese Democracy by Guns N Roses. Where as GnR fans had been waiting 17 years for the album, Gleason thought he could urge Axel Rose to finish the project as well as drum up some free PR for Dr. Pepper, the company’s most music-centric soft drink. Dr. Pepper has seen Flava Flav provide the voice of a can and they paid internet-sensation Tay Zonday to sing “Cherry Chocolate Rain” in promotion of Cherry Dr.
by Gossip Daddy on December 2, 2008
How’s this for something really, really stupid? Around late-March of this year, Sean Gleason, senior VP of the brand action team at Cadbury Schweppes decided that he really wanted to hear Chinese Democracy by Guns N Roses. Where as GnR fans had been waiting 17 years for the album, Gleason thought he could urge Axel Rose to finish the project as well as drum up some free PR for Dr. Pepper, the company’s most music-centric soft drink.
by Gossip Daddy on November 3, 2008
The newest Iron Man 2 news to come out in the past weeks was very simple, but unforeseen and briefly shocking reality that Terrance Howard has been replaced as Jim Rhodes/War Machine by Don Cheadle. Iron Man 2, thus far, has been a lot of contracts signed or withheld out of mystery (like Marvel taking forever to start Favreau on a sequel), and this mystery is no different. Luckily, we think we know what happened now… From EW : Hollywood insiders believe the exit stems from Terrence Howard’s difficult behavior on the set of Iron Man. But those with intimate knowledge of the situation suggest a far more dramatic backstory: Howard was the first actor signed to the film and, on top of that, was the highest-paid. That’s right: more than Gwyneth Paltrow. More than Jeff Bridges. More than Robert Downey Jr. And once the project fully came together, it was too late to renegotiate his deal. It didn’t help that, according to one source, Favreau and his producers were ultimately unhappy with Howard’s performance, and spent a lot of time cutting and reshooting his scenes. (Favreau could not be reached for comment, while Howard’s publicist says: ”Terrence had a tremendous experience working on Iron Man.”) Got that? Terrance Howard was being his usual crazy self on set, didn’t turn in a good performance, ye was getting paid more than everyone else. So, by the time Justin Theroux started working on the story for Iron Man 2, Favreau was ready to cut a lot of Howard’s part. This resulted in a drastically reduced offer (sources say between a 50% and 80% reduction) that shocked Howard’s reps, who were expecting as much money the second time around. What they got was an offer similar to the other supporting Iron Man characters. What makes the hole deeper is that Marvel and Favreau apparently never told Howard that they were unhappy with his performance, so out of left field comes an offer that’s much lower. We still don’t know who blinked first: team Howard or Marvel, but we do know Marvel was quick to scoop up Don Cheadle, possibly even quick enough to see Rhodes and War Machine’s role increase in Iron Man 2. That’s dirty Hollywood for you, right there. ShareThis
by Gossip Daddy on November 3, 2008
Titanic was on TV yesterday, and I happened to get swept into about an hour of it, briefly remembering when an affair with Kate Winslet seemed like the most exciting thing ever. All the tweens had Leonardo DiCaprio and “true lovem” and what have you, but all the guys had was a sweeping epic romance with a few minutes of Kate Winslet’s PG-13 nipples. Ever since then, Eternal Sunshine, Little Children and, now, The Reader have all tempted me to have a fling with Kate Winslet (who is married to Sam Mendes, who obviously will be too busy with Preacher to notice me coveting his wife). I’ll let The Reader tell it’s own story for the most part, but there are two interesting facts about it: 1) The film’s release date (12/10 in NY and LA, expansion on Christmas and nation-wide on 1/09/09) was hotly contested between Harvey Weinstein whose company produced the film and producer Scott Rudin, who wanted the film held until 2009 to make way for Revolutionary Road, his Oscar contender that also stars Winslet, who will be getting nominated again this year, possibly twice. Harvey won because that’s what he does. 2) Kate Winslet appeared on Ricky Gervais’ BBC series Extras as herself where she was doing a film about the Holocaust because she was tired of losing out on Oscars, as at the time she had been nominated four times, and that everyone who does a film about the Holocaust wins an Oscar. Granted, in that she played a nun, but still. Here’s her Holocaust movie. Trailer after the cut! The Reader stars Ralph Fiennes, David Kross and Kate Winslet, and is directed by Stephen Daldry (the Academy Award nominated director of THE HOURS), from a script by David Hare, and based on the award winning novel by Bernhard Schlink. Schlink’s The Reader has been translated into 39 languages and was the first German novel to reach number one on The New York Times Bestseller List. ShareThis
by Gossip Daddy on November 3, 2008
We thought that all the anti-hero sentiment around the net lately (especially Entertainment Weekly’s high-profile article title “ Five Ways To Fix Heroes ”) was rumor based on the falling ratings of the NBC show, which has been hovering a little over 8 million viewers, largely down from the 11 million ballpark we usually see Heroes in. Some suggest that the show is approaching Lost territory, where you should have been watching from the beginning if you want to understand anything, and some suggest that the complex, comic-book-like storyline is too complex for prime time network television. We thought that Heroes was slowly on its way towards a rebound. Or that’s what we wrote about . We assumed that the producers of the show had a solid idea and were pushing through to the end of Volume 3, where some Heroes would have their arcs ended and new Heroes would step in to tell the story of the Petrelli Family. Well, looks like 2 of the shows executive producers have been fired by the network… From Variety : Big shakeup on the staff of NBC’s “Heroes” came down on Sunday with the axing of co-exec producers Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb. Both scribe-producers had been with the show since its first season and were known to have led the day-to-day production operation under the direction of creator/exec producer Tim Kring. “Heroes,” produced by Universal Media Studios, has struggled in the ratings its third season. It’s understood that Alexander and Loeb were let go because of Peacock execs’ frustration with the creative direction of the show. The show is also said to have been grappling with hefty budget overruns this season, that are going well beyond its already sizable $4 million per-seg pricetag. To be fair, comic fans, Jeph Loeb messed with Marvel’s The Ulitmates pretty badly, so we see this as some sort of comeuppance for Ultimates 3. Either way, this is a drastic move for NBC as Loeb was one of the main draw for comic fans and – it’s suggested – one of the producers pushing for more similar storylines to those featured in mainstream comic books. ShareThis
by Gossip Daddy on November 3, 2008
Natalie Portman (obviously of Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium) and Rashida Jones already solved the financial crisis for us , so it should be no surprise hat they have the be-all-end-all solution for your Tuesday Election woes. ShareThis
by Gossip Daddy on November 2, 2008
Say what you will about the upcoming Presidential Election, but if it’s an appearance on SNL, old Daily Show clips or last month’s Alfred E Smith Dinner, John McCain is our funniest Presidential candidate. We’re going to buy some Pork Knives. ShareThis
