Filed under: Action, Deals, Sony, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Newsstand, James Bond, Daniel Craig

British jazz singer Amy Winehouse, who is known internationally more for her drug problems and wild antics -- in my five seconds of research, I see that she apparently heckled Bono while he was giving a speech, which makes me think she's good people -- has reportedly been offered the chance to sing the theme song for the new James Bond film. If British rag The Sun is to be believed, the producers of Quantum of Solace have gotten themselves involved in Winehouse's personal drama by offering the singer the theme song on the condition that she get herself clean and sober by April. "That's when the Bond people make a final decision on who sings the theme," the source said. "If Amy is clean then, it's hers." I don't know who this source is -- craft services guy, maybe -- but I also wouldn't put it past the crafty Bond producers to try to stir the media into a frenzy by putting Winehouse on the payroll in such a manner. For his part, Daniel Craig has already commented on this whole drama, saying "It's just way, way off that. Everyone's speculating about it but we've got other things to deal with -- there's no point in writing the song for a movie when we haven't got a movie." Yikes.

In other Bond news, there isn't any, really, but Craig did get into another tiff with journalists over his reputation for being difficult when it comes to press, which I didn't know he had. I met Craig during the junket for Casino Royale and found him to be as warm and as forthcoming as you could expect. On that so-called reputation, Craig says "I don't think it's true, it's just lazy journalism; they want to paint me as someone difficult. I think I'm quite nice, but maybe I'm delusional. There's no point in doing Bond if you're not going to sell it."

[via MI6]

Permalink | Email this | Comments

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Feb. 7, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Curv Entertainment Group, Inc. (Pink Sheets:CEGO), through its newly established internet division, Curv Interactive, announced today the launching of its first web property called Globalmarketwire.com

Blogger Edward Copeland likes movies and he likes lists; he just posted the results of an unscientifically conducted Best Best Actor poll and the rundown of the top 20 is thought-provoking and far-ranging. It starts with Jimmy Stewart in "The Philadelphia Story" and ends with -- well, see for yourself. The funny thing is that if you look at all the candidates, it's a pretty inarguable group of performances.

Copeland's also busy making lists over at Television Without Pity: he has one on the all-time Worst Oscar Wins by Decade (The 1960s: Kate Hepburn's Best Actress for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? -- a brave choice but the correct one) and the Ten Most Memorable Oscar Moments, which has the expected streakers and bogus Native Americans accepting for Marlon Brando but misses at least one biggie: John Wayne's 1978 farewell.

Filed under: RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking

Pictured: Scarlett Johansson in a scene from Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

While it's still too early to say which scenes we'll all be talking about at the end of the year, I'm putting my money on a couple scenes from Woody Allen's upcoming Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Not long ago, word got out that, among other things, the film would feature an all-out threesome between Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Okay. Woody's getting a little nutty in his old age ... but we dig it. Now, according to Page Six, that so-called threesome was just the beginning -- they say the film also includes a "steamy lesbian sex scene" between Johansson and Cruz. Here's my question: Are both these scenes really warranted, or did Woody simply want to see how far he could push his muse sexually?

A source told Page Six, "It is also extremely erotic. People will be blown away and even shocked. Penelope and Scarlett go at it in a red-tinted photography dark room, and it will leave the audience gasping." Personally, I think it will leave the audience feeling a lot of different emotions -- some of which may be explored further in the theater bathroom following the film. (Note to self: Don't sit next to the guy who's placed an empty bucket of popcorn on his ....) The film, which marks Allen's first feature shot in Spain, follows two American tourists who become romantically entangled with a painter. Rebecca Hall, Chris Messina and Patricia Clarkson also star. Vicky Cristina Barcelona is due out later this year, though I imagine it might premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this May if a cut is ready.

A Guide to Lesbian Sex Scenes

Top 25 Sex Scenes of All Time?

Top 50 Sex Scenes of All Time?

[via Slashfilm]

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Columns, Film Clips

Jeff Wells has stirred up a sh*tstorm of controversy over on Hollywood Elsewhere with a post about the Heath Ledger autopsy report. In a post bluntly titled, "Heath did it to himself," Wells says, in part:

New York's medical examiner report was predictably dry and succinct and non-judgmental, but the implication is that Heath Ledger didn't care to calculate or remember which prescription drugs he'd taken, much less assess their combined effect upon his body. You can say "accident" over and over but the blunt answer is that Heath did it to himself. Like I wrote the day he died. A tree didn't fall on him. Actions have consequences.

The post has generated the predictable array of comments, from the sympathetic to the angry to the truly asinine. Which all goes to show, if nothing else, the impact the death of a celebrity can have on people who never even knew him. Of course, with the release of the autopsy report today, no matter which way it came down, people were going to make judgments and jump to conclusions they shouldn't be jumping to. It's easy to judge Ledger, even if his death by overdose was accidental, because he should have known better, right? It's easy to look at what we (think we) know of his life and say, hell, the guy had everything going for him, what the f*ck? That's what most everyone was saying around Park City on the afternoon of January 22, as we all got out of press screenings to the news of his death. Shock. Profound sadness. Disbelief. Vehement indignation and anger, even.

Continue reading Film Clips: Of Heath Ledger and the Autopsy Report

Permalink | Email this | Comments

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 6, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- RedChip Visibility, a division of RedChip Companies Inc., today announced that it has dropped research coverage on Left Behind Games, Inc. (OTCBB:LFBG).

CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif., Feb. 6, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Hot Topic, Inc. (Nasdaq:HOTT) today announced the sales results for its fiscal month of January as well as its fourth quarter and fiscal year (four weeks, thirteen weeks and fifty-two weeks, respectively, ended February 2, 2008). A summary of the sales results by division (including internet) is as follows:

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb. 6, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Retro Television Network (RTN), which is owned and distributed by Equity Media Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq:EMDA), announced today that it will launch an RTN affiliate in Salisbury, MD. The network will begin airing on WRDE in the 4th quarter of this year on the station's digital channel. The station is currently being acquired by XBC Broadcasting, LLC, pending FCC approval.

Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Exhibition

Piracy is a huge issue in Hollywood, and I ain't talkin' about the Johnny Depp movies. The Motion Picture Association of America has been cracking down hard in recent years -- but how effective have their efforts been? Andy Baio at Waxy.org has tracked the availability of pirated versions of Oscar-nominated movies every year since 2003, and guess what? By the time the ceremony rolls around, nearly every nominated film can be found illegally online.

Here are his findings for this year, along with some analysis of the results. Baio reports that 28 of the 34 nominated films were online -- in DVD quality -- by the end of January. Some of those films are out on DVD already, and that accounts for some of the uploads. Others were made available to Academy members and some critics' groups by way of DVD screeners. Those screeners are encoded and tracked and watermarked, and we're threatened with our lives if we allow them to be pirated, but obviously some people are doing it anyway.

What's interesting about this year's data is that those Academy screeners are becoming less of a factor. The risk of prosecution has probably made some recipients think twice about uploading them. But also, the window between theatrical release and DVD release is getting smaller, and many films are released in Region 5 format overseas at the same time they hit theaters here. The reason for that is to counteract camcorder piracy -- there's no reason for someone to buy a pirated version on the streets of Hong Kong when a studio-endorsed DVD-quality version is also for sale -- but a lot of those DVDs make their way onto the Internet, too.

Continue reading Big Surprise: Almost All Oscar-Nominated Films Have Been Pirated Online

Permalink | Email this | Comments

LANGHORNE, Pa., Feb. 6, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Casual games developer and publisher eGames, Inc. (Pink Sheets:EGAM), announced today the finalization of an international distribution agreement with game publisher Mindscape for Rubik's Cube Challenge, a casual PC game based on the world's best-selling puzzle game. The agreement grants Mindscape distribution rights in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, while eGames oversees distribution of the game in North America.