Movies

An extremely smooth-looking Nicolas Cage appeared at the Maryland University campus with estranged Angelina Jolie daddy Jon Voight, while filming the sequel to "National Treasure."

In the sequel, "Book of Secrets," Cage chases after 18 missing pages from the diary of John Wilkes Booth, in what promises to be a real *yawn* cliffhanger in the murder of Abraham Lincoln.

The Maryland location is doubling for Washington D.C. in this Christmas release. Yup, you'll have to wait all the way until December for this traction/adventure. Oh, the torment.

Keith Richards whipped up a whole mess o' publicity for Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," but the House of Mouse is unamused with his antics.

In a recent and widely-reported story, Keith joked that he had snorted the ashes of his father, mixed with some drugs. He later said that he was kidding, but his jest was perhaps lost in translation. As you can see from this random clip, Keith is sometimes a little hard to understand.

Disney's publicity veep, Dennis Rice, told AHN, "When (a senior Disney publicist) forwarded the ashes story to me, I thought, 'How are we going to spin this?'" and "Keith won't be doing a lot of publicity for this movie." No surprise there, eh, matey?

Keith plays Teague Sparrow, father of Captain Jack, Johnny Depp's character in the May 25 release.

After "Kill Bill" and "Sin City" re-injected high kitsch into the American cinema, we here at City of Industry were particularly interested in what the critics would say about Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodgriguez's newest, critic-proof films: Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" and Tarantino's "Death Proof," which are being released as a double feature entitled "Grindhouse" -- this weekend on 2,624 screens.

By far, my favorite review of the directors' combined 3-hour slasher & zombie hodgepodge comes from the Christian Science Monitor's Peter Rainer, who writes of Tarantino's newest:

"Tarantino devotes a great deal of time to scenes of the women just sassing each other – at times it's like a grindhouse version of 'The View.' [but]...Tarantino may have moved beyond the grindhouse conventions he has routinely championed. The extended sequences with the women in 'Death Proof,' before the blood and the vroom-vroom set in, could be his newfound attempt to humanize his people instead of treating them as car-crash mannequins. He has such a good, loosey-goosey feeling for the back-and-forth jabber of girlfriends that you almost wish he had jettisoned the skidding U-Turns and just made a film about women hanging out."

That's an intriguing idea, and one that's especially timely given the untimely death of Bob Clark. Tthe director got his start with horror schlock like "Black Christmas" and raunchy comedies like "Porky's," but the media -- and the world -- remembers him far more fondly for directing that near-perfect holiday film, "A Christmas Story."

Bob Clark, director of "A Christmas Story" and a producer of the "Porky's" films, was killed today on California's famed Pacific Coast Highway when his car was hit head-on by an SUV driven by a man who was later arrested for being under the influence of alcohol.

Clark's son, 22-year-old Ariel Hanrath-Clark, was riding with his father and was also killed in the crash.

TMZ has learned that police arrested 24-year-old Hector Velazquez-Nava, the driver of the SUV, on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter, and that Velazquez-Nava will be booked once he is released from the hospital. We're told that Velazques-Nava had a female passenger whose status is unknown at this time.

Sporting the latest in receding hairline chic, the Oscar-winner (really?) was snapped with script and Starbucks coffee in hand on the D.C. set of "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," the sequel to his 2004 Da Vinci Code-esque knockoff.

The former hunk is an inspiration to struggling actors everywhere, proving you don't need Brad Pitt's looks to open a movie.

I'm talking about this sort of smarmy attack on John Travolta and his five private planes, out of London today.

What's the man suppossed to do?

Fly coach?

Urge people NOT to do their bit to stop global warming?

Sources tell TMZ that Pitt's Plan B production company is interested in turning James Scurlock's critically acclaimed documentary expose of America's obsession with credit card debt, "Maxed Out," into a feature film with a big Hollywood cast, in the vein of "Fast Food Nation." A well-placed TMZ source says that a Plan B rep contacted Scurlock's agent expressing how Pitt really enjoyed the docu's companion book, 'Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders.'

TMZ has learned that shortly after Plan B's call, Scurlock's reps were contacted by DiCaprio's production shingle, Appian Way Productions, who revealed the same interest in the documentary. Hunky see, hunky do!

We're told neither production company has finalized any deals for the film's rights, but it could turn into Pitt's biggest brawl since "Troy."

"Maxed Out" is playing in select cities now.

A rep for DiCaprio told TMZ, "This story is bull. It sounds like someone is creating a bidding war to try and make a buck."

A rep for Plan B could not be reached.

In Hollywood, unprecedented chutzpah is usually met with approbation, not probation.

But not today.

The Motion Picture Association today took the unusual step of issuing a month-long suspension of the ratings process for Roland Joffe's upcoming horror film, "Captivity." The film was planned for a May 18 release, but will not have to wait a full month before it can go before the MPAA ratings board, meaning that it will likely miss its planned release date if it wants to get a rating.

This all started a week ago, when "Captivity" billboards starting putting people off their lunch in L.A. and New York: Four graphic panels showed a young woman going through "abduction," "confinement," "torture" and "termination." As the Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez aptly put it, "I thought about ordering up a photo of the billboard for this column, but trust me, you don't want to see it. I felt like I needed to take a shower just from having been within a hundred feet of it."

Jill Soloway, who knows a thing or two about the portrayal of death from her stint as the executive producer of HBO's "Six Feet Under," blogged on the Huffington Post, that "it somehow managed to recall Abu Ghraib, the Holocaust, porn and snuff films all at once."

The MPAA says the 'art' work was "summarily rejected" but went up on billboards anyway. After Dark insisted it was a "communications error" with their printer, and said they'd be taken down. Six days later, they were still up. Finally, they came down, but were replaced with a defiant "'Captivity' was here." Hardly contrition, though Courtney Soloman, the film's producer, said "nothing like this can ever happen again."

Now, per the MPAA, "the production company and its distributors will also be required to clear not only all promotional materials but also the locations and venues of all advertising buys relating to the film" -- the first time such a demand has ever been issued by the MPAA.

Clearly, we're in for some interesting times ahead: In a recent interview with MTV.com, 'splat pack' director Eli Roth ("Hostel") had this to say: "Hopefully, we'll get to a point where there are absolutely no restrictions on any kind of violence in movies."

You have got to hand it to Disney. They know how to create demand for a film. Namely: Don't show it to anyone.

At a recent shareholder's meeting, Disney CEO Bob Iger was asked -- for the second year in a row -- whether "Song of the South" might be coming out on DVD. He was at pains to give a straight answer, saying, "Our concern was that a film that was made so many decades ago being brought out today perhaps could be either misinterpreted or that it would be somewhat challenging in terms of providing the appropriate context."

"South's" sixtieth anniversary might have been the appropriate context, but it passed last year with nary a commemorative gold-plated special collectors 2 disc platinum edition directors cut, which is how Disney keeps making money on shopworn chestnuts like "Peter Pan" -- keep 'em out of circulation for a while, then hype the hell out of 'em.

"South" has been in theaters four times in the intervening decades since its debut in 1946, but it has never been available on home video. Per the AP, you can see why: "The movie doesn't reveal whether it takes place before or after the Civil War, and never refers to blacks on the plantation as slaves. It makes clear they work for the family, living down dirt roads in wood shacks while the white characters stay in a mansion. Remus and other black characters' dialogue is full of 'ain't nevers,' 'ain't nobodys,' 'you tells,' and 'dem dayses.' "

The most "appropriate context," of course, would be in the home, where parents could discuss and explain to kids both what they're watching, and where stereotypes come from. Suppressing material like "South" is, at best, a missed opportunity and at worst, a white-washing of history.

Certainly, the rottenest thing that could happen to Remus would be to get the Aunt Jemima treatment in re-release: Over the years, the demi-goddess of pancakes has morphed from kerchief-wearing mammy of a slave, to a vaguely benevolent mother-figure with a string of pearls. Despite the image rehab, it's a name that's permanently tarnished; there just aren't ever going to be any black toddlers named 'Jemima' running around on the playgrounds of the future.

It used to be, when a Hollywood studio underwent regime change, if you were lucky, the new chief let you keep a bungalow on the lot with a desk and a phone. Maybe you'd hang up a shingle as a producer, and still lunch at the commissary.

Now, thanks to Wall Street, things work a little differently.

TMZ has learned that former Paramount Pictures vice chairman and COO turned distributor Rob Friedman is closing in on about $600 million to finance a slate of movies over the next few years. The deal would put Friedman in partnership with foreign sales company Summit Entertainment, which would handle the overseas distribution of the films it would make or acquire.

Persons familiar with the talks cautioned that the agreement with investment bank Merrill Lynch wasn't final, and that terms were still being negotiated. But were the deal to close, it would essentially turn Summit into a brand new film studio, akin to independent outfit Lionsgate Entertainment. Lionsgate has successfully balanced releasing gory slasher pictures like "Saw" and "Hostel" with Oscar-bait such as Best Picture winner "Crash."

Insiders say the new venture, which would retain the Summit moniker, would be looking for popcorn-style fare that will play well on 2,000 screens. To date, Summit has already gotten into that sort of business: It's releasing the new Paris Hilton comedy "The Hottie and the Nottie" worldwide next year, as well as the overseas rights to higher-brow movies like "Love in the Time of Cholera."

In Friedman, Summit would have a valuable marketeer and picture-picker: He started in the mailroom of Warner Bros. Pictures, and worked his way up to president of worldwide marketing, overseeing franchises like "Batman" and "Lethal Weapon," as well as the Oscar winning "Driving Miss Daisy." When Friedman arrived at Paramount in 1997, he helped create the marketing strategy for "Titanic" in partnership Twentieth Century Fox; it would become the highest grossing film in history.

Recently, Merrill Lynch has been exceptionally active in Hollywood: The bank leapt into bed with Tom Cruise, securing $500 million worth of film financing at United Artists last month, and has also underwritten labels like Marvel Entertainment and producer Ivan Reitman. (Marvel has already used Merrill money to begin pre-production on the forthcoming "Iron Man.")

Calls to Summit Entertainment executives were not returned at deadline, and Friedman declined to comment.

Anna Nicole Smith's estranged mother Virgie Arthur is in hot water over alleged unpaid legal bills. She's been summoned to the Bahamas once more because her former attorney Jamal Davis claims she hasn't coughed up the money she owes him.

Davis, who says he helped Arthur obtain an order to keep Dannielynn in the Bahamas while paternity is being determined, told Entertainment Tonight, "We represented her to the best of our abilities. We managed to avoid the child being removed from the Bahamas up until the point of time that we stopped representing her and we haven't received payment for our time and devotion spent on this matter."

"We're just exercising our right as any creditor would do to recover our fees. It's unfortunate we have to take this route," he said.

In other Anna news, on Monday the results of her autopsy will be released.

After a tumultuous reign, former boozer beauty queen Tara Conner passed her Miss USA crown on to Miss Tennessee, Rachel Smith, last night. Conner was almost prematurely dethroned in December, after allegations of wild partying and heavy drinking emerged. It was only after a heartfelt plea to pageant boss Donald Trump and a stint in rehab that Conner was allowed to keep her crown.

Now that it's all over, she told People magazine that, "the reign of Tara was miraculous. Literally, because I got sober during it, and that's the most important thing."

The Donald, too, seems satisfied. "We're very happy with Tara, very proud, and hopefully she will have set the example for many people that have problems with drugs and alcohol."

Conner offered her successor some advice. "Be yourself and put your own flavor on the title" -- just as long as that flavor isn't whiskey, vodka or beer.

Brit singer and new tabloid princess Amy Winehouse is making frenemies with Lindsay Lohan. Lohan was recently seen purchasing a Winehouse CD, and Winehouse, whose star is rising thanks to a song called "Rehab," recently told Giant magazine that she's worried about Lohan. "I want to coddle that girl. I really want to hug her," she said. She then goes on to poke a little fun at Lohan, adding that "I saw pictures of her coming out of the doctor's [office], and she's crying. She's holding papers in her hand, like, 'Oh, it's a note from my liver saying, "Dear Lindsay, I've gone to Vegas!" Winehouse is no teetotaler herself -- she has quite a rep for putting in booze-fueled performances, and in recent weeks she's canceled several concerts, allegedly for alcohol-related reasons. Maybe Winehouse should stick to singing, and leave the stand-up schtick to the pros.

Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle take a wild scooter ride through Manhattan in their new film, "Reign Over Me." But it wasn't icy roads or crazy cabbies that they were most concerned about. "You were rubbing up on the Sandman," says Adam, not entirely comfortably, referring to Cheadle's taking hold of his co-star in a rather intimate position on the two-wheeled vehicle.

The pair sat down for AOL Moviefone's Unscripted series to talk about "Reign." Sandler plays Cheadle's former college roommate who loses his grip on life after his wife and children are killed on 9/11.

This wasn't supposed to be how it went down: A prestigious package of opinion pieces in one of the country's most-lauded newspapers, the Los Angeles Times, guest-wrangled by one of Hollywood's most powerful producers, Brian Grazer. As entertainment firebrand Nikki Finke snarked when the deal was first announced a week ago, Grazer's was a nothing-if-not-ironic menu of op/ed pieces: "Pitbull entertainment litigator Marty Singer wrote a piece about the 'power of allegations'; ...psychologist Paul Ekman -- who's a facial interpretation expert wrote about the subject of 'catching liars.'"

While Finke's headline summed up most folks' skeptical reaction: "Hollywood Producer is LAT Guest Editor; No Wonder He Assigns Essay About Liars."

So it came as a considerable surprise when it was the integrity of the Los Angeles Times Op-Ed editor, Andres Martinez, that would be called into question: After media blogger Kevin Roderick broke the story on his L.A. Observed blog that Martinez was dating Kelly Mullens, one of Grazer's publicists, the excrement really hit the whirling blades.

First, Martinez tried to explain things away in his LAT blog. It didn't cut much ice, especially after an announcement of Grazer's guest gig featured his girlfriend as the press contact. Then, per Roderick: "Los Angeles Times Publisher David Hiller, under heavy pressure from the news staff, scrapped the Current [LAT's Opinion] section that was to be published Sunday under the guidance of Hollywood producer Brian Grazer." Moments later, Martinez resigned, and even offered an unusual online explication of why. Speaking of opinions, a sampling of the L.A. Times feedback section suggests readers feel that both the paper's op-ed editor and its publisher are suspect here.

Can white men jump ... or not? That's the debate raging in the TMZ newsroom after we got word from an insider on the set of Will Ferrell and Woody Harrelson's new flick, "Semi-Pro," that both actors are garbage on the basketball court.

According to our source, the pair were a couple of ball-bumbling baboons yesterday. In fact, our guy said that for the majority of the 15-hour day, the guys could barely get a shot near the rim.

This has, however, sparked a rumble here in the office. According to Daniel, a TMZ staffer who has actually played with Ferrell before, "Will definitely has game". Now, since Daniel has yet to reveal the quality of his own athletic talent, it's possible that Will could suck and yet be considered an all-star compared to our guy. (Ed.'s note: I'm good, dammit! -- Daniel)

As far as Woody goes, he played the ringer in the 1992 film "White Men Can't Jump," and appeared to be a b-ball expert in the film. In fact, a friend of TMZ wrote in to say Woody is definitely a baller. Guess anyone can have an off day.

BREAKING NEWS: We have just pressed Button 'E,' and using the Mach 5's special vision-enhancing infrared light goggles, have peered far into the future of film: Yes, we can just make it out in the distance! The Wachowski Bros.' "Speed Racer" has cast its title role!

Who'll be playing the young do-gooding leadfoot of the title?

Why it's Emile Hirsch, the talented young actor who got his big break as Johnny Truelove in Nick Cassavetes ' "Alpha Dog" last year.

Hirsch recently wrapped up a plum gig for director Sean Penn -- one where he starred opposite Vince Vaughn: A feature adaptation of Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild," with Hirsch playing Christopher McCandless, the doomed idealist who disappeared into the Alaskan wilderness in 1992. "Wild" hits theaters in September, around the time that the Wachowskis will probably be shooting "Speed," coincidentally.

Anyway, we hear Hirsch has just gotten the offer from Warner Bros. Pictures today, and his agents are putting the heel to the steel to make a deal for him to portray a driver who is equal parts Elvis in "Viva Las Vegas!" and James Bond.

It was supposed to be a moment of triumph for a company with a sketchy history when it comes to racial diversity in animation. After years of "Snow White" princesses, Disney announced that it was releasing it's first animated film with a black blueblood, about a princess named Maddy who lives in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

The film's unfortunate title? "The Frog Princess."

Given that 'frog' is a favorite English epithet for the French, we're eagerly awaiting a Frenchie firestorm: After all, in 1993, when Disney trotted out its first ever non-snowy white princess in "Aladdin," angry protests from Muslim Arabs erupted; they called the animated "Aladdin" racist for showing a Middle East filled with arbitrary violence. For example, one offending "Aladdin" lyric went:

"I come from a land, from a faraway place,where the caravan camels roam, where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face; it's barbaric -- but hey, it's home!"

That line was, unsurprisingly, cut from the final "Aladdin."

Calls to the French Consul-General's office in Los Angeles were unreturned at deadline.