Movies

Wearing a black turtleneck, jeans and New Balance sneakers, Ashton Kutcher was spotted in full character as Steve Jobs as he made his way to the set of the late Apple CEO's biopic in L.A. on Friday.

The 34-year-old "Two and a Half Men" star plays the visionary businessman during his younger years in a movie tentatively titled "Jobs: Get Inspired."

While Kutcher definitely looks the part, it remains to be seen if he can nail the role of a complicated man -- part hippie, part driven businessman, part brilliant, and part crazy.

Brendan Fraser claims the producers behind a new 3D movie about William Tell have screwed him out of more than $2 million in acting fees -- and now, he's suing for every penny ... plus more.

Brendan filed the lawsuit in L.A. County Superior Court -- claiming producer Todd Moyer hired him to act in "The Legend of William Tell: 3D" in early 2011, promising to begin shooting in October of that year.

Brendan claims he fully committed to the schedule -- passing up several other lucrative acting jobs to remain available for the William Tell gig.

But according to the lawsuit, Moyer couldn't stay on schedule due to financing problems -- relegating the William Tell project to development hell. The movie is still listed in pre-production on IMDb.

Brendan says his contract guarantees a payout of $2.25 million whether the film shoots or not -- and now, he wants all that money ... plus additional damages. All told, Brendan wants more than $3 million.

Todd Moyer tells TMZ, "This is the first I have heard of this lawsuit. As we told Mr. Fraser’s reps, we are ready, willing and able to make the movie for the September 3rd start date. [Producer] Julius Nasso and I have the movie fully financed."

"Wedding Crashers" babe Isla Fisher showed she has her husband Sacha Baron Cohen's back ... by wearing a t-shirt of his new movie on her front.

The 36-year-old rocked "The Dictator" swag while in Central Park with her daughter on Monday.

You may not have realized it when you were in the theaters this weekend, but "The Avengers" is not a movie ... it's a guerrilla marketing campaign for the shawarma industry!!! We'll explain ...

At the end of the "film," a scene within the credits shows the movie's stars eating lunch at an undisclosed location (not a secret lair or anything, they just didn't say). The meal of choice was shawarma ... a callback to something Robert Downey Jr.'s character had said earlier in the movie.

TMZ spoke with several different fine eating establishments all across Los Angeles ... and they all say sales of shawarma went through the roof this weekend.

At Ro Ro's Chicken -- a famed Lebanese joint in Hollywood -- the manager says shawarma sales jumped 80% in the days after the movie opened. We're told the same thing happened a few years back when a baba ghanouj joke was featured in "You Don't Mess with the Zohan."

Look out Scarlett Johansson ... Woody Allen has a new buxom, young muse in his sights ... and that muse is Lindsay Lohan.

The unlikely duo was spotted out in NYC last night at fancy-schmancy Philippe restaurant -- and we're told this isn't their first spin on the friendship bicycle.

Sources close to Lindsay tell TMZ ... Allen and Lilo have been friends for years now and he's one of her biggest supporters -- never jumping on the judgment bandwagon.

We're told there are no projects officially on the books right now, BUT sources tell us they've been throwing around the idea of Lindsay being in one of Allen's future films -- which would be huge for Lilo, since his last flick, "Midnight in Paris," was nominated for a bunch of Academy Awards.

We're also told Lindsay has nothing but respect for the quadruple Oscar-winning director and would LOVE to work with him.

Universal Studios claims its new big budget movie "Battleship" is in jeopardy -- all thanks to a low budget straight-to-DVD knockoff that's coming out ... and now, it's suing.

Universal filed the lawsuit against The Asylum -- a production company that makes low-budget straight-to-DVD "mockbusters" with similar titles to their big budget inspirations ... i.e. "Titanic 2," "The Terminators," and "Transmorphers." Just look at its IMDb page.

Now, according to the lawsuit, Asylum's up to no good once again -- releasing a DVD called "American Battleship" on May 22nd ... just 4 days after the big budget "Battleship" is set for theatrical release in the U.S.

According to the lawsuit, Universal spent $100 million producing its film ... and $30 million promoting it in the U.S. alone -- and Asylum's trying to piggy back on its hard work.

To prove its point, Universal points out the laundry list of ways "American Battleship" is a rip-off -- including the plot ... and the hilariously similar movie posters (above).

According to the lawsuit, Universal is the exclusive licensee of the film rights to the classic naval combat board game -- and Asylum's stepping all over its business. (Universal also calls its movie "highly anticipated," but wishing doesn't make it so.)

In the midst of a nasty divorce with his allegedly racist wife, Terrence Howard somehow found time to tackle ANOTHER legal dispute -- this time with an ousted ex-manager, who claimed Howard owed her mega bucks in unpaid commission.

The manager -- a woman named Victoria Fredrick -- filed a lawsuit against the actor last year, claiming Terrence owed her $137,500 for work she did while he starred in "Winnie" and "Fightin," for which Terrence earned a combined $2.75 million.

Fredrick also claimed Terrence owed her residuals from some of his biggest movies -- "Hustle and Flow", "Get Rich or Die Tryin", "Iron Man" -- PLUS over 100 future movies not even made yet.

But Howard furiously shot back -- claiming Fredrick was a "personal manager" only insofar as she answered phones and ran errands ... she did NOT help babysit his movie career, or have a stake in future projects.

Terrence said he paid her adequately while he employed her -- including some commission -- but any money demands she made beyond that were BS.

Rosie O'Donnell is on the warpath over the casting of Lindsay Lohan in the new Liz Taylor biopic ... saying LiLo simply isn't "capable" to perform the role because her personal life is still a disaster.

Rosie was on the "Today" show with Matt Lauer and Donny Deutsch ... when it was announced that Lohan will play Taylor in the upcoming Lifetime movie, "Liz and Dick."

O'Donnell instantly made her feelings known -- "I feel very sorry for her ... I think she needs a lot of time away ... She's had a lot of trouble doing every single movie, including SNL. She was out and not in rehearsal. I think she's not in a place to work."

When Deutsch suggested, "She's our generation's Elizabeth Taylor" ... O'Donnell lost it.

Rosie continued, "I don't think she's right for the role and I don't think she's capable at this point to portray that character."

The brainchild behind the porn parody, "Not the Three Stooges XXX" has been threatened by the guy behind the PG version that was released Friday -- to either put the brakes on the porn, or else.

Robert Benjamin, Executive VP and General Counsel of C3 Entertainment which produced the PG movie, fired off a letter -- obtained by TMZ -- to the lawyer for the triple X version, claiming the "low budget, clearly pornographic film" is not protected as a parody under the First Amendment.

But Michael Fattorosi, the XXX lawyer fired his own letter back -- which we also got -- claiming the only way Benjamin could stop him is with a proper trademark, and Fattorosi says the only Three Stooges trademark Benjamin owns is for Three Stooges bottled beer.

But even more basic -- Fattorosi lectures Benjamin on the fact that a parody is protected as free speech.

The PG movie came in second last weekend, pulling in $17 mil.

Lindsay Lohan's alleged nightclub assault -- and her weekend-long partying -- will not scare off the producers who hired her to play Elizabeth Taylor.

Lindsay's rep Steve Honig tells TMZ he spoke to the filmmakers this morning -- after the photos of LiLo at the Coachella Music Festival came out -- and says, "Producers have assured us everything is on track and there are absolutely no problems."

Sources close to the production tell us producers also aren't overly concerned about the ongoing police investigation into whether Lindsay assaulted a woman at a Hollywood nightclub. We're told they're sticking with her ... for now.

Musclebound god The Rock was spotted with his similarly buff, bald and green slimed body double on the set of his new bodybuilding film "Pain and Gain" in Miami this weekend.

Mel Gibson is telling friends ... he NEVER said John Lennon deserved to die -- in fact, he's a huge Beatles fan and he plays their music all the time.

Sources tell TMZ, screenwriter Joe Eszterhas' allegations the actor celebrated John Lennon's death are just false. As one source put it, "It's not uncommon to hear The Beatles at Gibson's house."

The source adds, Gibson was even playing "Imagine" at a recent function -- the same song Eszterhas says Mel bashed recently, claiming, "Imagine. I hate that f**king song. I'm glad [Lennon's] dead."

Mel is claiming ... he isn't surprised by Eszterhas' false claims in his 9-page diatribe -- because the entire letter reads like a "bad script."

We're told Mel is also convinced ... another major rift between him and Eszterhas had nothing to do with him -- or "The Maccabees" -- it had to do with Mel's other viking-themed film project, which Mel's been developing for years.

Joe Eszterhas tells TMZ ... he has hard proof that he witnessed the hate-filled rants he -- or someone -- just disclosed to the world, because his teenage son secretly recorded much of it.

Joe tells us, "A lot of the stuff is on tape." He says the recordings were made in Costa Rica -- by his son Nick. Joe would not say if the alleged comment about John Lennon -- "I'm glad he's dead. He deserved to be shot," or the comment about Oksana Grigorieva, "I want to f**k her in the ass and stab her while I'm doing it," or the comment about William Morris/Endeavor Chairman Ari Emanuel, "He's a C**t Jewboy," were all on tape.

In his letter to Mel, Joe wrote that his son recorded some of Mel's outbursts on his iPhone, but the letter did not disclose how much -- now Joe says, "a lot."

Joe also says people who allegedly witnessed Mel's rants are willing to come forward.

As for "The Maccabees" script that Warner Bros. rejected, Joe said, "I'm heartbroken. I put my heart and soul into a script for someone who hates Jews."

Sources tell TMZ ... Mel Gibson believes "The Maccabees" project with Warner Bros. -- the project that triggered nuclear war between Mel and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas -- is still alive, but in fact it might as well be buried in a rose garden.

A source connected to Mel tells us, "The project is going forward without Eszterhas. He [Mel] still has a relationship with Warner Bros."

As you know by now, Eszterhas has written a blistering, 9-page letter accusing Mel of making unspeakable anti-Semitic remarks and even celebrating John Lennon's death.

As for Mel's claim the movie project is still alive, a source intimately connected with it tells TMZ,"There are no plans on making it into a movie."

Our source, who has first-hand knowledge, tells us Warner Bros. was tentative in the first place about doing the project, but was banking on the script "being a heroic story, like Braveheart." The source says, "When the script was submitted, no one liked it ... including Mel."

We're told even if the script was good, the project would still have had to clear a number of hurdles, but given what was submitted, it's effectively D.O.A.

Mel Gibson celebrates John Lennon's death, claiming he deserved to die ... this according to the screenwriter of the failed "Maccabee" project, Joe Eszterhas.

In a scathing 9-page letter, obtained by The Wrap, Eszterhas claims Mel once ranted about the departed Beatle, "I'm glad he's dead. He deserved to be shot. He was f**king messianic. Listen to his songs! Imagine. I hate that f**king song. I'm glad he's dead."

According to Eszterhas, Mel saved his true fury for Oksana Grigorieva, saying, "I want to f**k her in the ass and stab her while I'm doing it."

And on the business side, Eszterhas claims Mel said this of Ari Emanuel, the head of the William Morris Endeavor Agency: "He's a c*nt Jewboy."

Mel has fired back at Joe, claiming the letter is a pack of lies.