Movies

Emile Hirsch is a crappy choice to play John Belushi in the recently announced biopic -- at least according to Belushi's brother ... who gave us his fully biased opinion on who should get the gig.

Jim Belushi was at LAX when he told us he likes Emile as an actor -- just not as an actor playing the late great Belushi ... and instead thought Robert Belushi should play him.

Of course, RB is Jim's son ... so it's hardly an objective choice on his part -- but he does offer a couple of good reasons why 33-year-old Robert could do it, including the whole blood line thing.

Look out Jay Gatsby ... 'cause Justin Bieber says the loud party at his Calabasas home that pissed off his neighbors this weekend was straight out of "The Great Gatsby."

Biebs was strolling Fairfax in Hollywood Saturday when we asked about the noisy rager he threw Friday night -- the one that caused his angry neighbor to freak out and call cops ... 3 TIMES!

J.B. wouldn't discuss the pissy neighbor situation or any of the police visits ... but was stoked to brag about the actual party ... that ended up with a police report with his name on it.

Jake Gyllenhaal trotted out his bandage-wrapped hand in Hollywood yesterday ... just days after he was rushed to an ER for slicing his mitt on a mirror.

Jake attended a screening of "Prisoners" Friday night -- and laughed it up during a Q&A for his movie ... seemingly unfazed by the injury.

As we previously reported ... Gyllenhaal "flipped out" while filming a scene for a movie called "Nightcrawler" and punched a mirror. The cut was so bad he needed stitches.

Batkid is about to bat-crap his shorts ... 'cause he just got props for his romp through San Francisco yesterday from BATMAN HIMSELF!!!

Michael Keaton was cruising out of a Beverly Hills restaurant Friday when we asked about Batkid -- the 5-year old who celebrated the end of his battle with leukemia yesterday by running around SF acting like the Dark Knight.

Keaton hadn't actually seen the awesome footage of B.K. battling the Riddler or Penguin .... but thought it was one of the coolest things he'd ever heard.

Check out the gallery for a recap of Batkid's epic adventure.

Joel Silver -- producer of bad-ass action flicks like "Die Hard," "Lethal Weapon," and "The Matrix" – tells TMZ the rumors are true ... he really did invent Ultimate Frisbee … and he’s damn proud of it.

Silver was leaving Matsuhisa Restaurant in Beverly Hills … and we asked the obscure sports innovator about his greatest non-movie production.

Joel says he created “Ultimate” at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey … and went on to form the first collegiate team at Lafayette College … paving the way for hippies to finally have a sport of their own.

Jake Gyllenhaal socked a mirror on the L.A. set of his new movie -- slicing up his hand so badly, he was rushed to the hospital to be stitched up.

It all went down Wednesday morning, according to People.com ... Jake "flipped out" during a scene for "Nightcrawler" and punched the mirror with his fist, shattering it and damaging his hand in the process.

Jake was reportedly taken to a nearby ER where he was treated and released. He returned to the set later that day.

Mark Wahlberg says he wasn't specifically targeting Tom Cruise when he railed on actors who compare their jobs to soldiers at war -- but he STILL thinks Tom needs to shut the hell up.

Wahlberg -- who was tooling around L.A. Wednesday -- said he wasn't aware Tom was the one who made the actor-soldier comparison when he blasted actors who dared feel that way at the AFI Fest Tuesday night. Wahlberg says he's a huge Cruise fan and meant no disrespect.

But Wahlberg made it clear -- any comparison is B.S.

Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place. Check the video.

Get this ... on the red carpet at the AFI Fest ... Mark clearly knew about Tom's depo, saying "An actor recently just said his job was almost as important or as difficult as someone in the military ... Not Cool."

Mark Wahlberg lashed last night, saying "For actors to sit there and talk about 'oh I went to SEAL training? I don't give a f**k what you did."

Wahlberg was speaking at the AFI Fest in L.A., when someone asked a question about the rigorous training for his movie, "Lone Survivor." It seems Mark may have had our story about Tom Cruise on his mind in which Tom seemed to compare his acting job to fighting in Afghanistan.

Wahlberg unloaded, saying "For somebody to sit there and say 'my job was as difficult as being in the military.' How f**king dare you, while you sit in a makeup chair for 2 hours."

Wahlberg didn't stop there. He said, "I don't give a s**t if you get your ass busted. You get to go home at the end of the day. You get to go to your hotel room. You get to order your f**king chicken."

As we reported, we have seen the video of Tom Cruise's deposition where he makes the Afghanistan reference. When the opposing lawyer says, "Now your counsel has publicly equated your absence from Suri for these extended periods of time as being analogous to someone fighting in Afghanistan," Cruise does not react -- he certainly doesn't make the question look like a joke.

In fact, when Cruise responds, "I didn't hear the Afghanistan, but that's what it feels like and certainly on this last movie it was brutal, it was brutal," he doesn't make it look like it's an obvious joke. It seems more like a macho answer.

But then, the opposing lawyer crystallizes the point and says, "Do you believe the situations are the same?" You can see a light bulb go off in Cruise's head, and he realizes where the lawyer is going, and he snaps, "Oh come on." At this point Cruise is disavowing any comparison.

2:04 PDT: Wahlberg's rep tells TMZ, Mark loves Tom and was in no way referencing him in his comments.

NFL star Rob Gronkowski is goin' Hollywood ... TMZ has learned Gronk is about to become a real-life movie star ... 'cause dude just signed on to a monster Hollywood film.

We got word from Gronkowski's theatrical manager Henry Penzi ... the NE Patriots' stud is going to be hugging it out with Jeremy Piven, Adrian Grenier and the rest of the boys from "Entourage" in their upcoming feature film.

The movie starts shooting in January ... we're told Gronkowski won't have to stretch his acting abilities too far ... 'cause he's going to play himself (spoiler?)

So far ... no word on what kind of scene he'll shoot ... but given his history ... we wouldn't be surprised to see Gronk partying it up with a bunch of hot babes.

Terrence Howard says Tom Cruise was dead-on -- making movies IS like fighting in combat.

Pretty amazing .... while Tom Cruise's people waged their own war to torpedo stories that Tom compared acting to fighting in Afghanistan ... Terrence embraced the analogy.

We broke the story about Tom's deposition transcript, in which he does compare the two. As we reported, we have now seen Tom's deposition video -- at first he buys into the analogy in a macho sort of way, but then squarely dismisses it after seeing that the opposing lawyer had set a trap.

TMZ has seen the VIDEOTAPE of Tom Cruise's deposition, and here's what's clear ... he scoffs at the comparison between his job as an actor and a soldier in Afghanistan, but only at the end of a contentious exchange with the opposing lawyer.

We were not able to record the video but we viewed the portion in question several times. You see a buttoned-up Tom -- wearing a coat, a vest and a white shirt -- sitting almost motionless with his lips pursed, as the lawyer asks:

-- "Now, your counsel has publicly equated your absence from Suri for these extended periods of time as being analogous to someone fighting in Afghanistan. Are you aware of that?"

As the question is asked, Tom does not change his expression. He doesn't scoff, laugh or show any sort of shock. He sits impassively.

Tom's lawyer objects and then says he can answer. Tom remains stoic.

Then he answers:

-- "I didn't hear the Afghanistan, but that's what it feels like, and certainly on this last movie, it was brutal. It was brutal."

When Tom says "I didn't hear the Afghanistan, but that's what it feels like," he doesn't laugh but moves in his chair. When he says "It was brutal, it was brutal" ... Cruise laughs.

Then when the lawyer says "Do you believe the situations [being in a movie and fighting a war in Afghanistan] are the same?" ... Cruise becomes almost indignant and says, "Oh come on." At this point he is clearly saying they're not the same.

Cruise's lawyer, Bert Fields, says the notion that Tom compares his acting to fighting a war is a distortion, pointing to a section in the deposition -- not part of the deposition that was publicly released -- in which Tom is asked, "Do you believe the situations [being in a movie and fighting a war in Afghanistan] are the same?" Tom replies, "Oh come on." Fields says that clearly means "of course not."

For the record, here's Tom's quote, responding to the opposing lawyer in the deposition:

Lawyer: "Now, your counsel has publicly equated your absence from Suri for these extended periods of time as being analogous to someone fighting in Afghanistan. Are you aware of that?"

Cruise: "I didn't hear the Afghanistan, but that's what it feels like, and certainly on this last movie, it was brutal. It was brutal."

Tom Cruise not only thinks he trains harder than Olympic athletes, he believes his job as a professional actor is as grueling as fighting the war in Afghanistan -- this according to legal docs obtained by TMZ.

As we reported, Cruise recently sat for a deposition in his $50 million libel suit against a magazine publisher that claimed he abandoned daughter Suri -- and his quotes are GOLD.

First, the Middle East -- Tom says his location shoots are just like serving a tour in Afghanistan, "That's what it feels like. And certainly on this last movie, it was brutal. It was brutal."

As for his physical training, Tom said, "There is difficult physical stamina and preparation. Sometimes I've spent months, a year, and sometimes two years preparing for a single film." But the kicker, he adds, "A sprinter for the Olympics, they only have to run two races a day. When I'm shooting, I could potentially have to run 30, 40 races a day, day after day."

But it's not all grenades and triathlons ... Tom says he's only flown commercial ONCE in the last 4 years ... and that was because he had no choice.

Tom Cruise fessed up during his deposition in his defamation case -- some of his movies should have gone straight to DVD -- or into the trash can.

The lawyer for the magazine he's suing asked Cruise about the actor flying to a Scientology event while he was shooting a movie. Cruise testified at the time he was shooting "One Shot" in Pittsburgh.

The attorney admitted confusion, saying he had never heard of the film and was surprised the studio would "throw away one of your films."

By the way, "One Shot" was retitled "Jack Reacher," which grossed $80 million domestically.

So we gotta ask ...

Sandra Bullock will probably win an Oscar this year but when she came face to face with another epic Oscar winner she got a quick Hollywood reality check.

Sandra was rushing into Craigs in Hollywood last night when she stopped dead in her tracks after spotting Sidney Poitier talking to some friends outside.

A humble Sandy approached Sidney ... in fact, she waited for him to finish a conversation and then introduced herself like she was some random chick.

The 86-year old actor kinda knew he recognized her ... but didn't necessarily know from where. However things quickly got all nice and kissy-kissy.