1. Russell Can Make a Journalist Eat Crow
It’s not often that a story about an A-list Oscar winner taking on a gossip columnist makes you smile and think better of both parties when the dust has settled. But that’s exactly what happened this week when Russell Crowe, having endured a day’s worth of being stalked by Sydney’s tabloid The Daily Telegraph, who were intent on belittling his exercise-and-ciggies routine, called up the journalist in question and laid the smack down. It’s an amusing read -- there’s video too. Credit to Annette Sharp for putting her money -- or at least her calf muscles -- on the line.
State Of Play -- Crowe 1; Sharp 1 (for trying).
2. Blue Is The New Black
First there was Dr. Manhattan in “Watchmen”. Then there’s the horde of Na’vi about to descend in “Avatar.” The first images of the Smurfs movie are out. Guy Ritchie has signed up to make a film featuring D.C. Comics’ berserker Lobo -- also of the hue.
Now it has been announced that on December 17, 2010, the blue hero of “Tron Legacy” goes up against… “The Green Hornet." Is it too late for Sony to put a color wash over Seth Rogen to make him blue?
3. But If You Really Want Blue…
Check this out. It’s Bollywood. It’s “Fast & Furious,” it’s “Deep Blue Sea,” it’s “Chicago.” It’s explode-y and bite-y and dance-y and rather brilliant. Added down under the water Down Under interest: the songstress gyrating in this epilepsy inducing trailer is Kylie Minogue
4. Eli Roth Loves the Animals (Surprise, He Loves Them Alive)
Jenna Jameson, Christy Turlington, Joanna Krupa, Pamela Anderson, Holly Madison and…. Eli Roth? Yes, you heard right, “The Bear Jew” of “Inglourious Basterds” is doing an advertisement for animal rights group PETA. The TV spot will see the director of “Cabin Fever” and the “Hostel” movies getting some serious tongue action from a big snake. Even more amusing, this news came to me via a piece in the elegant pages of “The New Yorker”. The web-tag referred to him as “Torture Porn Director” – geez, you snip off one penis on screen and you’re pigeonholed for life…
5. Eli Roth Better Step Up His Game
The various outrages in “Hostel” and its follow-up sound positively PG-13 compared with the description of a film presently playing FrightFest in the UK. “Human Centipede: The First Sequence” from writer-director Tom Six has, shall we say, an unusual premise. As Dustin Rowles of www.pajiba.com describes it: “A respected Siamese Twin surgeon has developed his future vision of the world.
He wants to remove all humans’ kneecaps and then graft the humans together, mouth-to-anus, to form a human centipede.
