Ask Matt: Globes Weirdness, Dexter, Person of Interest, Charlie Sheen, and More!

Jim Caviezel, David Costabile Send your questions to askmatt@tvguidemagazine.com and follow me on Twitter!Question: I often appreciate the Golden Globes because they show greater range in the nominations than the Emmys, which tend to nominate the same people long after the bloom is off the rose. However, this year's nominees are just weird. Boss and American Horror Story instead of Breaking Bad, Justified or The Good Wife (or Friday Night Lights, if it was eligible)? Callie Thorne? Jeremy Irons? David Duchovny? Of the five nominated comedies, only two (Episodes and Modern Family) seem to be fitting. The Middle, Community, Parks and Rec, Big Bang Theory and Cougar Town deserve praise ahead of the others (especially the highly problematic Glee). I know that the Hollywood Foreign Press tends to be eclectic in its choices, but this is somewhat ridiculous. What do you think? - ErinMatt Roush: Somewhat ridiculous? Try laughably. This group is so desperate to seem with-it that once again, they end up lacking any credibility whatsoever. I'm all for including new blood into an awards mix, but this year's transfusion went way overboard. Embracing niche shows like the dismal Boss over the spectacular season of Breaking Bad (among the other terrific dramas you pointed out) or the peculiar Enlightened over the best of NBC's Thursday night comedies goes beyond head-scratching. If we didn't know better, we'd think they were being incredibly elitist instead of merely desperate in their slavish embrace of cable (especially the pay channels). But at least they acknowledged Homeland, which is more than the astonishingly lazy SAG Awards nominations could muster last week.Question: I saw the Golden Globes nominations and was quite surprised to see American Horror Story got the nod over The Walking Dead in the best drama category. I like American Horror Story (I know you are not a big fan), but I love The Walking Dead and think it is a much better show. What are your thoughts about this? - CathyMatt Roush: Obviously I agree with you. The first half of The Walking Dead's second season wasn't perfect - even I got restless toward the end of those episodes on the farm, though the final sequence was as powerful and disturbing as anything the show has ever done - but at least it seems to be about actual humans in a truly horrific situation. And when it goes for the jugular, it's truly frightening, because it feels like there's something truly at stake. Whereas American Horror Story is just a lurid sick joke badly told, and the only nominations I'm on board with regarding that show are those saluting Jessica Lange's wildly entertaining performance - she runs circles around everyone, and if the rest of the cast were on her level (Denis O'Hare comes close), they might be able to salvage the dreadfully obvious and vulgar writing. I've always loved the horror genre when done well, which is why I'm rather dismayed (but in a way, almost amused) to see people egging on this indulgent train wreck with nominations and Top 10 mentions.Question: I am assuming with awards season around the corner, due to its schedule everyone will forget what a great final season Rescue Me had. - GlennMatt Roush: You're probably right. But I hope you saw our Cheers & Jeers year-end issue, where we singled out Rescue Me among the year's finest series finales (along with Friday Night Lights, of course). But it really isn't so much about the timing of the final season as much as the perception that Rescue Me had peaked a few seasons ago. Which is mostly accurate. And while the show did regain much of its power in its final season, it probably wasn't enough to get back on many people's radar, especially those handing out awards, who generally are more keen on acknowledging shows that still have a future.Question: I know "jump the shark" can refer to a show's general decline in quality, but for me it means the introduction of a plotline so outrageous or clichéd that we can no longer watch and suspend disbelief. I have been thinking about shark-jumping ever since I saw Deb's dream sequence on Dexter last week. And I want to know: Is it me, or were the writers winking at us as they water-skied over the cage? The Dexter writers seem too savvy to me to have made this plot decision without knowing how viewers might react. The dream sequence itself seemed deliberately scripted to remind of us of every other romantic dream sequence we've ever seen in films or TV, so that viewers knew long before the cut to Deb in bed that it was in fact a dream. And in a show about a single dad/vigilante serial killer, who hides in plain sight in a homicide division forensic lab (where his adoptive sister is a cop), who talks to a hallucination of his dead adoptive father, who has murdered people just yards away from colleagues and who has shared Thanksgiving dinner with another serial killer's family, I suppose one could ask whether any plotline is too outrageous. But then I could be giving the writers too much credit. I am withholding judgment on this plot twist until I see the finale, but I am really curious to read what you think. - Michelle WMatt Roush: My own notes during that dream sequence of Deb and Dex getting uncomfortably intimate read: "STOP IT! NO!!" followed by a few "ewwwwws" for good measure. But as we now know (SPOILER ALERT for those who haven't watched Sunday's finale yet), this icky epiphany was a set-up for the long-awaited climactic twist of Deb finally discovering the truth about her adoptive brother (and, in her mind, the love of her life: again, ewww), that he's a murderer of murderers. I agree with you that the way last week's dream sequence was filmed made it obvious it was a tease, so there was a wink (and perhaps a leer) implied. And in the finale, when Deb cried to her therapist, "Is this just horribly wrong?" any viewer with sense had to be screaming back to the screen, "Yes!" The therapist, as they so maddeningly do, merely prodded her, "Does it seem wrong?" So I guess my knee-jerk answer to your question is that if this is the catalyst the show needed to clue Deb in on Dexter's secret, maybe it was worth it. Because I have to think the sight of Dex plunging the knife into Travis' chest kind of spoiled the mood, don't you think? I guess we'll find out next season.Question: I'm a huge fan of the new CBS crime drama Person of Interest. I have been a great admirer of Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson, who has always impressed me. I love the story lines and think it is the best show to come out in a long time, but it has not raised that much popular support and the ratings, while good, are not as great as CSI. What are your thoughts about the show and do you think it will be granted a second season, because it feels like the best shows get canceled. And also what are your views on the final season of Chuck, and do you think it's a possibility that it gets a back order to reach the 100-episode mark? - IshaanMatt Roush: I wouldn't worry about Person of Interest. It's not quite a breakout hit, but it's performing solidly on Thursday, and has been picking up steam lately, both in the ratings and creatively. The last few episodes, introducing the Elias nemesis and bringing Detective Carter closer to the worlds of Finch and Reese, have been very strong and surprising. It's not as conventional as many of CBS's procedurals, which may ultimately work against it being as popular, but I don't see CBS dropping it when the network has so many long-in-the-tooth series waiting to be put out to pasture over the next few seasons. Regarding Chuck: There is no possibility I can imagine where it will continue past its scheduled finale (titled "Chuck Vs. the Goodbye") to reach any other sort of milestone beyond the miracle of scoring this shortened fifth season. Which I'm sorry to say feels like a misbegotten one. My fondness for this series waned a while ago, though I stayed with it through last season, and watching the first few episodes of this season put me off so completely I had no inclination to go the extra mile to follow it through on Fridays (where I'm already trying to keep up with more intriguing and/or fresher low-rated shows like Fringe, Nikita, Supernatural and Chuck's new NBC companion Grimm).Question: I'd like to get your opinion on the departing Desperate Housewives, which I see you haven't really addressed so far. I know you've been quite critical of the show in the past and with good reason. With the exception of Seasons 1 and 4 (thanks primarily to Dana Delaney), the show has been, at best, uneven. I found Season 7 particularly frustrating. Susan's storylines as well as the Gaby baby switch drama were completely out of step with the tone of the show, and with the exception of the season finale, most of the season felt like a rushed and empty effort. I've stuck it out with the show despite its problems, because there are a few episode gems to be found amongst the terrible ones.When this final season of Desperate Housewives started out, I was under the impression that it may unfortunately go the same way as the other seasons. But over the last couple of weeks, it seems to be picking up a significant amount of steam. For one thing, the murder mystery might not be the best the show has ever had, but at least it's given us an opportunity to see the housewives working together or, at least, interacting with one another more than usual (the Bree/Gaby moments have been a particular highlight). Also Marc Cherry, Bob Daily and Co. seem to be doing a nice job of bringing the show back to its roots by bringing Mary Alice back into focus, particularly in the last episode with the Bree suicide cliffhanger. What do you think? Has Housewives got a chance of going out with a bang? - AdamMatt Roush: A "bang" sounds a little hopeful for a show that lost its oomph quite a while ago, and which lost me for good last season. I tried watching the first few episodes of the season, but much like the Chuck situation, felt the show was running on fumes (and not very enjoyable ones), so haven't been keeping up. (With terrific shows like Homeland, The Good Wife and Once Upon a Time on Sundays, there are much more satisfying options.) I do agree with you, though, that any storyline in which the ladies of Wisteria Lane are operating in tandem instead of in separate universes tends to make for a better season. And the Mary Alice element does bring the show nicely full circle. I will probably rejoin Housewives at some point closer to the end of the season so I can prepare a proper eulogy. Maybe Chuck, too, both being series I enjoyed during their long-ago peak. (And I stayed loyal to both long after the point of it making any critical sense.)Question: I won't argue the cutesiness of Hart of Dixie, but it's not phony: It's just set in another universe. Bluebell is to Alabama as Stars Hollow is to Connecticut, but eleventy-seven times more so. A little gentle chivalrous sexism lives on, but racism and its legacies are erased by the warm sun and the gentle breezes off the Gulf of Mexico. Everybody eats in the same restaurants, sees the same doctor(s), celebrates the same daft holiday variants in that precious little town square. Dogwoods bloom just in time for the Alabama-Florida football game. The mayor, a former NFL star (Cress Williams, really?), lives in the old plantation house and has a pet alligator named Burt Reynolds, apparently the only gator along that stretch of coastline. And this same tall, handsome black mayor had a hot romance with the local doctor's pearlescently platinum daughter, and no one took a shot at him - or, for that matter, even noticed. There are some fine and admirable people in Alabama (our Alabama), but Bluebell and its citizens aren't among them. Their home is much farther from here than Fringe's Over There, and those who can't abide an alternate-universe tale should steer well clear. - JohnMatt Roush: Letter of the month! Kudos! Thanks for the laugh. But even an offhand comparison to the bliss of Gilmore Girls feels like sacrilege. Yes, Stars Hollow had more than its share of precious qualities, but the premise, the characters, the rapid-fire dialogue were all so distinctive and smart, truly charming, leaving a happy afterglow and not the sense that you'd just bitten into a poisoned praline. You're right. The Fringe team really should be called in to investigate these aliens in Bluebell.Question: When are they going to realize that without Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men stinks?!?!?! The character of Walden is ridiculous, they brought back Herb's sister as Walden's wife (what's with that; do they think viewers are too stupid to remember the actress [Judy Greer] as the one who broke Charlie Harper's heart?), they're wasting Jake and Berta's characters, and as much as I like seeing more of Alan, one person can't carry a show. Did Charlie Sheen do moronic things? Yes. Would a mentally fit person do the things Charlie Sheen did? No. The man has a mental illness. Now that he seems to be taking his medication or getting help in some way or another, Charlie Sheen needs to "man up" and apologize to Chuck Lorre and the rest of the Men staff in whatever way they deem acceptable (privately, publicly, huge donation to a favorite charity), Lorre and company need to accept said apology, and they need to get the show back to what it has always been about: Charlie Harper and his hysterically vile lifestyle. JMHOPeople who have mental illnesses have relapses and setbacks. Being mentally ill is no different than having a medical problem such as diabetes. If Charlie Sheen had stopped taking his insulin and gone into a diabetic coma, spent copious amounts of time in the hospital to recoup, would they have fired him for that? No, I don't believe so. And believe me, a diabetic whose blood sugar has dropped can say and do some outrageous things. If they wouldn't fire a diabetic who behaved poorly, why should it be OK to fire someone who is mentally ill?!?!? That is wrong on so many levels. Thanks for letting me vent. - Cindy LynnMatt Roush: Vent all you want, but that ship has sailed. Charlie has moved on, developing a new sitcom (Anger Management) for FX, which is likely to be one of the most anticipated and analyzed comebacks in TV history. I recommend you read Michael Schneider's excellent and thoughtful interview with Men's executive producer Chuck Lorre, who was already well acquainted with substance abuse and recovery well before the Charlie Sheen debacle went into its final tailspin. These decisions weren't made lightly, and there was no guarantee the show was going to come through it, but regardless of your feelings for Men 2.0, it's doing better than CBS and Warner Bros. could have anticipated. I'm not arguing the show wasn't better in its original form - it was - and if they could have kept it going with Sheen on board, they would have. But he made it impossible, and there's no rebuilding that nuked bridge. The best news would be that Sheen, now that he's put his public rantings and self-congratulatory embarrassment of a concert tour behind him, is on an actual road to recovery and Anger Management is as good a fit for him as Men was. If, that is, the rest of the public is as forgiving as you are.Question: I'm a huge fan of the Owen/Cristina pairing on Grey's Anatomy, but I haven't been thrilled with their storyline for the first half of the season. I can live with the abortion that took place early in the season, because it would seem that it would provide a deep, engaging storyline for the characters and for the amazing Sandra Oh and Kevin McKidd to act out, but there has been very little fallout thus far and almost no reaction on the part of either character aside from the first couple of episodes of the season. There hasn't even been the usual brilliant, subtle expressions that Sandra Oh is so good at to indicate that Cristina is at least thinking about the impact on her marriage, such as during the scene in [episode 5] where she is fawning over Zola, Derek and Meredith's baby, and Owen leaves the room. Do you think the lack of reaction and the delaying of any real discussion of the abortion is due to contract talks taking place and whether or not Sandra Oh will come back next season, and do you think that the dragging out and lack of addressing the issue over the first half of the season has done damage to the pairing in the long term, assuming Sandra Oh comes back? It's very difficult to understand where the writers are going with Cristina and Owen or whether or not it is worth sticking out the rest of the season to see if the situation will be addressed at all. - MichelleMatt Roush: Seems to me it's more a case of the writers not wanting to belabor (no pun intended) this particular storyline. The dynamic in the scene you described between Cristina and Owen, with Zola as the catalyst, said volumes without it having to be spelled out. Sometimes less is more, though I imagine "shippers" wouldn't be satisfied until these characters get their own spin-off. I doubt the ongoing contract uncertainties have that much to do with how the first half of the season played out. That's no way to write a show. And should both actors stay on Grey's, which I hope they do, I don't think long-term damage has been done, if any. This situation is something that will always be a part of their history, and who's to say it won't come up at the next turning point in their relationship? The way these actors played out their roles in the midseason finale, in the wake of Henry's death on the operating table, with Cristina's meltdown seen but not heard, is the kind of drama I'm more interested in, anyway, and I'm gratified that Grey's can still deliver the goods when it wants to this long into its run.Question: I have written you before about CSI: Miami. I have commented on some of the things that Horatio does. After the Dec. 11 episode, I wonder why I still watch. The writers have ruined this show by the way Horatio is being written. The team will criticize people for taking the law into their own hands. The end of the episode shows the child molester hanging from a balcony. He tells H that he has to help him. H says, "Do I?" and then lets him fall to his death. Apparently H is now judge, jury and executioner. I am almost hoping that the last show has him on trial and going to prison for the stuff he's done. There was that incident in Brazil and he punched a suspect that was being questioned on Dec. 4. - FosterMatt Roush: If your scenario ever plays out, with Horatio brought back to earth from whatever delusional superhero Valhalla he thinks he's operating in, I might actually watch. But until then, I just have to echo the most pertinent part of your commentary, namely: Why again are you still watching?Question: Long-time reader of TV Guide Magazine and fan of your column. I am a voracious reader and have been a fan of Stephen King forever. In your review of Bag of Bones, you describe the "rearranging the magnetized letters on his fridge door." You call it a classic King touch: the fantastic within the ordinary. Completely true. However, I dare suggest, that the first time I read that "classic King touch" was in a book by Dean Koontz. The book, Watchers, was about a golden retriever. A very special golden retriever who used Scrabble letters to spell out words. From what I've read, King and Koontz are at least acquaintances, and probably genuine friends. I would be willing to bet that particular "classic King touch" started with Dean Koontz. Just sayin' ... - DavidMatt Roush: Good catch. And you may be right. Like you, I'm a longtime King fan (not so much with Koontz), though Bag of Bones is one of his books that didn't grab me or stick with me - it was still better than the miniseries - and I can't say if the magnetized-letters trick was his invention or not. I guess there are only so many ways for spirits to reach out, and I might have been even more impressed if Scrabble tiles had been used. But thanks for reading, and for writing.And that goes for everyone who has written in and/or followed this column through the year. That's a wrap until 2012, and I can't thank you all enough for keeping me challenged and entertained with your questions and comments. Please keep them coming to askmatt@tvguidemagazine.com, and we'll pick up the conversation again in the new year. In the meantime, have the happiest of holidays in anticipation of what I hope will be a Smash-ing 2012 TV year!Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!

Berlin uncovers next Generation

BERLIN -- Sex and religion and also the desiring lost parents are some of the prevalent styles apparent within the first choices for that Berlin Film Festival's children and youth sidebar, Generation. Coordinators introduced the very first 14 movies which will unspool within the section, such as the world premiere of Rebecca Thomas' U.S. pic "Electrick Children." Rory Culkin and Billy Zane star within the tale of the youthful Mormon girl who thinks being pregnant to become caused by an immaculate conception, while her essentially religious family regards it as being an intolerable transgression. Inside a similar vein, Marialy Rivas' Chilean drama "Youthful & Wild" concentrates on a woman whose sexual adventures puts her at odds together with her evangelical parents. They're among eight features to date selected for that older-skewing Generation 14plus, that also includes the planet premiere of Gabriel Marino's "A Secret World," in regards to a schoolgirl who sparks on the harmful journey across Mexico in search of her dreams. Other game titles include Ella Lemhagen's Swedish crime drama "The Crown Jewels," starring Bill Skarsgard and Alicia Vikander Simon Staho's Danish-Swedish teen musical "Love Is incorporated in the Air" and Angelos Abazoglou's Greek-British "Mustafa's Sweet Dreams," in regards to a teen striving to become master baklava baker in Poultry. Also unspooling are "Off Whitened Lies," Maya Kenig's Israeli-French family drama set from the backdrop from the Second Lebanon War and Han Lee's South Korean title "Punch," in regards to a boy handling a cruel and disciplinary teacher. The six photos to date selected for that Generation Kplus tyke section include Indonesian helmer Kamila Andini's "The Mirror Never Lies," in regards to a youthful girl who's still convinced her father will return from fishing the oceans and Nicole van Kilsdonk's Nederlander title "Taking Chances," in regards to a young girl who still hopes her father will return from the distant war despite his disappearance on the medical save mission. Also screening are "Kauwboy," a Nederlander film by Boudewijn Koole, in regards to a youthful boy who switches into a motherless baby bird Alice Schmid's Swiss doc "The Kids in the Napf" Janno Poldma and Heiki Ernits's Estonian-Latvian animated film "Lotte and also the Moonstone Secret" and Rommel Tolentino Filipino pic "Nono." The Berlinale runs February. 9-19. Contact Erectile dysfunction Meza at staff@variety.com

Burn Notice Exclusive Sneak Peek: Is Fiona Out?

Gabrielle Anwar Is Fiona throwing in the towel?On the Burn Notice season finale (Thursday, 10/9c, USA), Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) and Sam (Bruce Campbell) are tasked with keeping an eye on Anson (Jere Burns) while Michael (Jeffrey Donovan) leads his biggest mission yet. But as seen in this exclusive clip, she's fed up with being at a standstill as Anson's plans kick into gear. VIDEO: Burn Notice's Bruce Campbell on taking down Anson and the Evil Dead remake"To hell with this! I'm done," she snaps before driving off.Watch the clip to see how Sam tries to rectify the situation:

George Lucas on 'Indiana Manley 5': 'I Really Haven't Found the MacGuffin Yet'

Because you couldn't avoid this slow-news Monday without a bit of improving ("improving") from George Lucas on 'Indiana Manley 5,' here you're going: the super-producer doesn't have a very cemented idea for your fifth film, despite protestations by Steven Spielberg on the other hand. "Really, I told him I didn't have it yet," Lucas told Vulture when asked for about Spielberg's recent quotes the concept for film five was made a decision upon. "I told him in regards to the story, however really haven't found the MacGuffin yet. I'm speaking about, I experience how it is all about, however i must search for a MacGuffin that suits to the arena we operate in.In . Translation: status quo! Speaking about 'Indiana Manley 5,' Spielberg told EW it had been "around George. We have already made the decision around the genre in the fifth movie, finances a concept in your head. I am unsure where George is to apply the story. There is no 'Indy 5' until George states there's." Based on Lucas's recent comments, it might seem like you will notice an 'Indy 5' ... eventually. Maybe. Probably. Should not you be searching toward another handful of years of these updates? [via Vulture] [Photo: AP] Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook

'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' Hard Copy Video Looks Into Mystery

The "feel bad movie of Christmas" doesn't open until Dec. 23, but in the meantime, you can delve into the secrets of 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' with a new viral video. Posted to Mouth Taped Shut is what seems to be an episode of the old 'Hard Copy' tabloid TV, complete with cheesy reenactments, cheesy '80s hair and lo-res, seemingly 30-year-old VHS. The 'Swedish Mystery' episode delves into the death of Harriet Vanger, which is the central mystery at the heart of 'Tattoo.' 'Hard Copy,' for what it's worth, ran from 1989 to 1999, occupying a pre-E! niche of celebrity crime stories, inspiring the 'Rock Bottom' parody on 'The Simpsons' episode 'Homer Badman.' [via HuffPo] Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook

Dobie Gray, 'Drift Away' Singer, Dies at 71

TNT is trying its hand at another medical drama.our editor recommendsSherry Stringfield, Virginia Madsen to Star in TNT Telepic 'Hornet's Nest'Justin Bieber, Cee Lo Green to Perform at TNT's 'Christmas in Washington' SpecialTNT Targets 'The Closer,' 'Rizzoli & Isles' Fans with Weekend Event Sweepstakes Mere months after pulling the plug on HawthoRNe, the Turner network has ordered a pilot for Chelsea General, a new medical series fromproducerDavid E. Kelley(Ally McBeal,Chicago Hope) and practicing neurosurgeon and CNN chief medical correspondentDr. Sanjay Gupta, M.D. Kelley penned the pilot, which isbased on Gupta's upcoming novelMonday Mornings. The book follows the lives of five surgeons as they push the limits of their abilities and confront their personal and professional failings. It uses as its backdrop their hospital's weekly morbidity and mortality conference, when doctors gather with their peers for a confidential review of complications and errors in patient care. Kelley and Gupta will executive produce. "Chelsea Generalpromises to be a smart, witty and extremely powerful medical drama, the kind of series David E. Kelley is renowned for making," said Michael Wright, executive vice president head of programming for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies. "We look forward to working with David and Sanjay in bringing the doctors' fascinating stories and characters to television." Kelley, whose Harry Law is in its second season on NBC, is repped by WME, Original Management and Gendler & Kelly. PHOTO GALLERY: View Gallery 10 Broadcast and Cable TV Show Most Watched By Men Related Topics David E. Kelley TNT TV Development

'Star Wars' Icon Chewbacca Invades 'Glee'

I feel a great disturbance in the Force late last week Matthew Morrison of "Glee" told Jimmy Kimmel that next Tuesdays episode will include a throwback and a tribute to the Star Wars Holiday Special and the Judy Garland Christmas Special. And -- wait for it -- Chewbacca will be in it. While I would never utter a derogatory word about Judy, the Star Wars Holiday Special is another matter entirely. Widely regarded as one of the most tragic TV disasters of all time, the 1978 special included the entire core cast of A New Hope doing, saying and singing truly vomit-inducing things. George Lucas never hid the fact that he found the project contemptible, so why on Hoth would he give the makers of Glee permission, as Morrison said, to use Chewbacca (not Peter Mayhew but the official Chewy nonetheless) in their Christmas episode? My only wish is that the Glee folks give the Wookiee the respect he deserves (his Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1997 MTV Movie Awards was indeed well-earned). If hes treated like a big walking carpet, it will be the last Glee episode I will ever see. Tell us what you think in the comments and on Twitter!

Peter Weller, 'Robocop' Star, Joins 'Star Trek 2'

Remember: wherever Peter Weller goes, there he's. Deadline has reported the star of sci-fi classics like 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Within the Eighth Dimension!' and 'Robocop' has grew to become part of the cast of J.J. Abrams' approaching 'Star Trek' follow-up inside an unspecified role. Weller stood a very busy 2010, guest-starring on 'Dexter,' 'Psych' and 'Fringe,' the Abrams-created sci-fi analysis show on Fox. Then when he is not busy acting (or serving the very best Directive), he's busy teaching at Syracuse College and producing a Ph. D in Italian Renaissance art history at UCLA. Casting news for part two remains starting to warm up formerly day or two while using gossips that Alice Eve might have the feminine lead, and Benicio Del Toro might be the villain, nevertheless it certainly won't be Khan. Trekkies will probably be quick to point that Weller came out on 'Enterprise' as Ernest Paxton, the commander from the moon-based colony, who introduced a deal to kick all extraterrestrials from Earth. Fans however, probably shouldn't expect him to reprise the role, considering these new movies are dedicated to restarting the large 'Star Trek' mythology. So Spock can relaxation easy on that particular. The still-untitled 'Star Trek' follow-up won't reach theaters until May 27, 2013 -- the required time to acquire really impatient. [via Deadline] [Photo: Getty Images] Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook

Chuck Lorre, Michael Eisner New ATAS Hall of Fame Inductees

A proposed nationally syndicated talk show to be hosted by reality TV star Bethenny Frankel will not go forward for fall 2012 as hoped, according to a source.our editor recommendsBethenny Frankel's SkinnyGirl Tequila Quality Challenged in LawsuitMalibu Property Owner Sues Claiming 'Bethenny Ever After' Violated PrivacyBethenny Frankel Addresses Skinnygirl, Lost at Sea Controversies on 'Today' (Video)Bethenny Frankel Inks 3 Book Fiction Deal With Touchstone FiresideBethenny Frankel Already Taping Talk Show PilotHow Bethenny Frankel Used Her Reality Show to Make $120 Million Photos: NYC's Biggest Showbiz Players In the wake of new talk show commitments for Katie Couric, Steve Harvey, Jeff Probst and others, Frankel's distributor Telepictures (a division of Warner Bros.) could not land a commitment from a major U.S. station group for her proposed talk show, despite strong support from Ellen DeGeneres, as firstreportedby theNY Post. Bethenny Ever After has completed production on a new season and will continue on Bravo. STORY: Ricki Lake, Bethenny Frankel and Jeff Probst Eye NBC's Open Daytime Slot There have been reports that Frankel will seek to do a talk show for a cable channel, but so far nothing has come of that, according to a source. Frankel came to fame as one of the Real Housewives of NY City. She was also featured on the show Bethenny Getting Married. She was also on the The Apprentice: Martha Stewart in 2005. She also appeared on the ABC series Skating With The Stars. Frankel also created the company Skinnygirl Cocktails, which she sold in April for $120 million The Hollywood Reporter reported. . Video: 'Housewives' Stars Show Off Their Luxurious Closets She has also been author of the books Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting, and The SkinnnyGirl Dish: Easy Recipes for Your Naturally Thin Life and A Place of Yes: 10 Rules for Getting Everything You Want Out of Life. She has also done an exercise video and an audio book. PHOTO GALLERY: View Gallery Emmy Roundtable: Reality Stars Related Topics Bethenny Frankel Reality TV Bravo The Real Housewives of NY City

WATCH: It's Open Season on Twilight and Teen Idols in the Latest Verbal Vogueing, Featuring Movieline's Louis Virtel

In the latest episode of the pop culture-masticating internet sensation Verbal Vogueing, Louis Virtel tackles teen idoldom through the ages. Does Justin Bieber deserve those lesbian doppelganger slams? Can any of the Twilight kids escape Louis’s wrath? Did he just drop a Karen Carpenter joke so hard I nearly LOLed-up my lunch onto my computer screen? Oh yes. He did. Catch up on more Verbal Vogueing here, and tell Movieline which devastatingly embarrassing teen idols line(d) the walls of your room/locker/dungeon below.

Pereda gears up for 'Greatest Hits'

GIJON, The nation -- Mexico City-based Interior 13 Cine is creating tragic comedy "Finest Hits," helmed by Mexican Nicolas Pereda, whose "Summer season of Goliath" assigned Venice Horizons this season.Within 13 Cine, which produced Yulene Olaizola's Tribeca fest player "Artificial Paradises," will co-produce with Colombia's Burning Blue, run by Diana Bustamante and Jorge Ferrero. Holland's Hubert Bals Fund co-finances and contains distribution rights for Benelux."Hits" toplines Gabino Rodriguez, the star of Pereda's features, and also the other Pereda regular, Teresa Sanchez . It triggers a parent or gaurdian and street bootlegger boy whose harmony is shattered with the return in the extended absent father.According to Pereda, he was elevated in the Mexican society where plenty of males desert their loved ones either from need or sheer irresponsibility. The dad figure is absent in several of his films. In "Hits," he pictures the father's return. Pereda's fifth feature, "Hits" is available in 72 hours, Interior 13 co-mind Maxiliano Cruz mentioned at Spain's Gijon festival, where "Hits" features in Puentes, a choose Europe-Latin America co-production forum.Gijon's primary industry event, Puentes is organized with the Media Program's Eave, a workout initiative for completely new producers, as well as the Buenos Aires Festival of Independent Film's Buenos Aires Lab.It has a stylish bevy of projects, some from title company company directors, shingles or producers, no less than for cognoscenti of Latin American film. Chile's Forastero, producers of Golden Globe-nominated "The Maid," can be a moving lady-in-crisis drama "I Am Sorry Mother," being helmed by Sebastian Lelio ("The Season in the Tiger").Sara Silveira's Dezenove Som e Imagens is co-creating "Rosa F.C." helmed by Michael Wahrmann and occur the immigrant neighborhood of Sao Paulo.Ex-Wild Bunch professional Lucie Kalmar is creating Niles Atallah's "Rey" and Buenos Aires' Utopica Cine, producers of "Las Acacias," is backing Fernando Salem's "How Nearly All Things Work," an awareness-good comedy road movie getting a pop-art aesthetic. Utopica is fielding multiple European co-production offers, "Things" producer Paula Massa mentioned at Gijon. Puentes experts include UDI's Frederic Corvez ("The Shades in the Mountain"), Jean des Forets at Petit Film ("Cold Water in the Sea"), The earth the planet pandora Filmproduktion's Christoph Friedel ("Medianeras") and Michel Ruben at Colombia's Dynamo ("Blind Alley"). Puentes runs November.22-24. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

On Bella's Desire and Beyond: Going Deep on Breaking Dawn with Twilight's Melissa Rosenberg

Throughout the Twilight franchise, one screenwriter has adapted author Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling book series about a teenager and her love for a vampire for the screen: Melissa Rosenberg. It’s a tricky job, balancing the desire to satisfy fans with the need to make Meyer’s 500+ page-novels cinematic, all while transforming heroine Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) from unsteady teen to self-possessed woman. But in Breaking Dawn - Part 1 Bella finally is an agent of her own destiny, her senses awakened, and her choices confident. Was she, as Rosenberg insists, an active heroine under the surface just waiting to spring into action all along? The topic of Bella’s long-criticized status as a passive heroine (as written by Meyer) was just one of many Movieline dove into recently in an extensive chat with Rosenberg. (Also discussed: That honeymoon! That vastly improved acting! The virtually unfilmable events of 2012’s Breaking Dawn - Part 2!) Arguably the best-crafted installment in the series, Breaking Dawn - Part 1, which opened to $139.5 million last weekend and earned the #5 spot among the all-time biggest openings of all time, marks a promising beginning of the end for the Summit franchise; meanwhile, Rosenberg turns her attentions to fostering stronger roles for women through her production company and upcoming television projects. Read on for more. [Spoilers follow] Critics have long criticized Bella Swan for being a passive heroine, but in Breaking Dawn she most clearly seems to take charge of her life. Did you see this installment as an opportunity to show her as more of an active agent in her own destiny? I think in the film versions of Bella, she’s fairly proactive even from the start. That’s at least been one of my primary objectives, to shift her into that role. In Breaking Dawn that’s more obvious, because she seems to finally know and assert what she wants — in her choice of men, in her sexuality. It feels like she becomes a woman in Breaking Dawn, whether it’s through these specific rites of passage — the wedding, the loss of virginity, the childbirth. By the time we get to the honeymoon, she wants to have sex, and she’s the aggressor. I’ve always loved that about Bella. She’s desirous. She pursues Edward in that way; he’s the one who saying, “No, let’s hold off…” I love that. In some ways, this is terrible perhaps, it gives girls permission to own that for themselves as well. Along those lines, Breaking Dawn is fairly intense for the younger side of the fandom; by now, girls who were tweens and younger teens at the start of the franchise have grown up with it, but you’ve got sex and the desire of sex and the repercussions of sex — pregnancy, even the debate over abortion… are these rather intense subjects for young girls to take in? Yeah, there’s a lot to process. I think particularly in this movie, which is PG-13 — it’s really PG-13. Parents really need to think about it, if [their children] are not 13. It’s a very grown up movie, a grown up story with some very adult themes. It’s emotionally complex, and, you know, it’s about a marriage. Marriage is hard work! I’m somewhere in the middle of the Twilight demographic so these themes aren’t so alien to me as they might be to younger viewers - but then, aren’t these kids watching shows like Teen Mom on MTV anyway? Maybe, and as you said earlier I think they’ve grown up with this character and they’ve gone through her journey to get here. And the movie in itself is a journey; she begins as a girl leaving home for the first time and getting married. The wedding, as you said, is a rite of passage. Having sex for the first time… you’re sort of drawn into it and taken along on her journey. Which scene did you find was most difficult to hammer into shape, or to get absolutely right as you were writing it? There were a number of them, but some of the harder stuff was when Bella comes back and Jacob sees her for the first time, fully pregnant, then sits down with her to try and convince her not to go through with it. That was very, very hard; you’re talking about really complex emotions and conveying Bella’s point of view, Jacob’s point of view… there was a lot going into that scene and those similar to it. Those took a number of different drafts. In comparison to the previous films in the series, Breaking Dawn seems most subtle in its references to prior events or details from the book — for example, it doesn’t shove a reminder in our face of who Laurent was when his fate comes up in discussion at the wedding, and we don’t get an over-explanation of why Rosalie is the one person who would help Bella defend her baby. Was that a deliberate choice? That is why for a screenwriter to have really great collaborators is very valuable, because it’s hard for me to separate myself from the material and initially I was putting all sorts of backstory in there. Then, as I start to get notes from the studio and the producers and Stephenie, and most importantly in that case, is Bill [Condon], because he is coming to it fresh. He’s able to say, “You know, you don’t need all of that — the fans who know about it will get it, and the ones who have never read it, it won’t matter.” There are some nice surprises in the film for fans of the book; they’re going to get the Laurent and Irina reference, but to anyone who hasn’t read the book it just doesn’t matter. Even a brief callback, like Charlie looking curiously at the graduation caps collage in the Cullen house… Yes! That wasn’t in the book but it was a reference to the first movie. Those sorts of things are fun for fans, and yet they’re thankfully integrated into scenes without being hammered home. Right — well, that was a product of much honing, because I started by overexplaining a lot. [Laughs] How was working with Bill different than your previous collaborations with Catherine Hardwicke, Chris Weitz, and David Slade? You know, all four of them have been wildly different in their processes, and I’ve been very fortunate that each one has been not only very talented but actually a nice person to work with. [Laughs] I actually personally like each one of them. And Bill, as with them all, was very different. Bill is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter himself, so my experience has been that he approaches everything as a storyteller. I don’t want to in any way lesson my experience with the other directors, but Bill probably is one of the best creative collaborations of my career, which is saying a lot — I’ve been doing this for two decades! Why do you two work so well together? He is a screenwriter and speaks the same language. His process is very similar to mine. So he was able to create the room for me to do my best work, as best as I could, and to support it and be there as a sounding board; he had countless ideas. He’s woven into every line and scene of that screenplay, and yet he gave me ownership of it, he allowed me to bring everything I could to it. That’s a very unique gift as a director. It really is the ideal collaboration. It’s something every screenwriter would hope for. I also think it’s apparent, from watching Breaking Dawn, that Bill was quite good working with his actors. Very clearly. I think they’re better than they’ve ever been. What’s your perspective on why the cast has progressed through the past three films until now? I think it starts before they even get on set; not to have everything be about me, but it starts with his work with me. This story is very much character drama. It’s not the big, epic storytelling of New Moon and Eclipse. This is a really personal, intimate story about a girl’s coming of age, about a marriage. Hence, I was actually looking forward to writing the fifth movie because it’s all cool action and new characters. I was like, “How the hell am I going to do this?” Bill was actually attracted to this one because he loves that kind of storytelling. I think in some ways it goes back to his Gods and Monsters days. So he just kept on pushing me to go deeper and deeper into the characters and their conflict, pulling back the layers, so before the actors come onboard he’s already pushing me to really give them something to play. A lot of his work is just bringing me up, and then the actors get onstage and he’s already embodied what he wants and needs from them, and can guide them in a really masterful way. Let’s talk honeymoon. Obviously I enjoyed what sexytime we saw within the PG-13 rating, but fans were hoping that somewhere out there was an R-rated version of the scene. The holy grail of Twilight fandom! How did you walk the line, even in conceiving the scene, in terms of how far you should go? [Laughs] For me, the important aspect of that scene is the story of this consummation of this epic love story - the connection between them, the chemistry between them, the intensity is what delivers. Then it lands in Bill’s lap, in his capable hands, to really shoot that and direct that in a way that delivers. He made a choice early on that I wrote toward, which was an idea of his, to play a lot of it in flashback. So it’s very funny; they go to bed and the audience is going, “What?! That’s it?” Then he plays back a lot of it in this really wonderful flashback moment. I thought that was great, it really gets you inside Bella’s experience of the night.

Shailene Woodley on The Descendants, Positive Thinking, and Her Future in Film

comments: 0 || add yours The roster of actors in the world who could reduce megastar George Clooney to rubble with a single withering look is short, but add newcomer Shailene Woodley to the top of the list. As Alex, the acerbic 17-year-old daughter of Clooney’s Hawaiian landowner and family man in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, Woodley (of ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager) makes an auspicious film debut that could land her in the Oscar race — not that Woodley, perhaps the most well-adjusted young star on the rise in Hollywood, would take awards razzle-dazzle too seriously. Movieline met Woodley in Los Angeles last week on her 20th birthday to discuss The Descendants, in which Clooney’s Matt King comes to a crisis point in middle age: His newly comatose wife has been cheating on him, he must wrangle his two estranged daughters into something resembling a family, and he has to make a decision to sell his inheritance, a wealth of vast and untouched Hawaiian land. Woodley’s Alex is Matt’s toughest nut to crack, sardonic and rebellious for her own reasons until she becomes her father’s partner in crime. Alex could use some Woodley-style wisdom herself. Read on for Movieline’s chat with the grounded up and comer about The Descendants, the tragic sweetness of Alexander Payne, her outlook on the cutthroat industry (and how not to fret over lost roles), and what it’s like to be thrown into the spotlight with other young Hollywood types as award season rolls on. You’re making quite the splash these days. Obviously you’ve been on TV for a while now, but making your first foray into film work, in an awards season hopeful, brings a different kind of attention. I don’t know! I don’t really think about it, to be honest. For me, acting is about the art of it and it’s about being on a film set and doing your thing, painting a blank canvas. So that, to me, is the fun part. And then all of this extra stuff is fun as well, but this is definitely more of the work part. And then everyone talking about things, and asking me how it feels to be talked about… the four months in Hawaii exceeded any expectations I created for myself, and so now going to all these different festivals and meeting these interesting people and talking about a film I’m passionate about is, like, beyond the icing on the cake. Beyond the cherry on top. To think about what’s going to happen in the future and all of that, it’s silly. You never know what tomorrow will bring. And you should enjoy the moment right now. Exactly. I’m already the most fortunate girl in the world, so I have zero expectations for what the future will bring. I’m just excited to be here right now. By the way, happy birthday! Thank you! Is this a strange way to spend a birthday? At a press junket? It’s wonderful, actually. It’s wonderful. How did The Descendants first come to you, and did you feel there was a lot of importance in deciding what project to make your feature debut? I didn’t think about any of that. You don’t really think about, “Oh, this is going to be my first feature — it’s got to be the right one.” For me, my rule in this industry is I’ve got to listen to my butterflies. So if I got butterflies, then those are the scripts I go after. I got, like, beyond butterflies for this movie. I got dragons! I read the script, and it was so real and human, and raw and messy, and it’s so rare that you get a good script nowadays. So often, especially for my age range, I feel like they’re beautified and glamorized and “artistically-licensed” — and they’re not human. So reading a script like this was really refreshing. It reminded me, in completely different ways, of Little Miss Sunshine. When I watched that movie, I laughed and I cried, and some of the ways in which they handled situations seemed absurd but still practical, you know? And this movie, even though the tone and some other things are very different, some of the scenes are absurd but practical, and it’s funny but it’s sad. And that’s what makes the story and characters feel more real. It totally makes it feel more real, and it feels like good cinema instead of just action, crazy, CGI entertainment. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, because entertaining movies are great too. You’re right — The Descendants fits into an atypical category of film, and one of the things it does well is find the humor in the saddest of situations. I think the reason it does that is because Alexander [Payne] sees that we take our lives so seriously. We give importance to the craziest things. He kind of approaches his films from a birds’ eye-point of view, where he sees that this really dysfunctional, sad, tragic moment is actually quite hilarious and over-the-top. When you’re removed from it, when you’re outside of the situation, you see the humor in life. It’s when you’re in this cycle that you kind of get lost in it. He’s got that unique ability to make you laugh, cry, and laugh again in a two-minute scene. So the script came to you and you connected to it. When it came time to audition or meet with Alexander, was it a role that meant more to you than most? Yes — I actually read the script in April 2009, and I didn’t audition for Alexander until November of 2009. I never do this, ever, but every single week I emailed my agent saying, “What’s going on with The Descendants?” They were like, “Still don’t have funding,” or “Still don’t have a director,” “Still don’t have a lead actor,” “Still don’t have a studio…” So there was always a reason why they weren’t casting. I was always passionate about it from Day One, before I knew Alexander or George were attached. Then when I finally got to audition, it was so exciting. What was the audition like? When Alexander was in L.A. I was working on [The Secret Life of the American Teenager], so scheduling-wise it conflicted and I couldn’t see him. When he was in NY I happened to be in Toronto, so I flew down for a day to audition for him in NY. It was kind of standard; I went in and did my thing. I left feeling confident because I knew I did everything I could do. A lot of times you leave auditions and think, “Ahhhh, why did I do that? I could’ve done better.” But this one I really did do what I knew was humanly possible for Shailene to do. I think that was because I had so many months of build-up that I was so excited to just do it. But I’m very aware that in this industry, 500 out of 501 times you do not book something, and I’m a firm believer that you’re right for a role, or you’re not right for a role, so if you don’t book it there’s no sense in wallowing over why you didn’t book it. You didn’t book it because that girl was either A) better than you for the role, or B) had the right look, or C) knew someone you didn’t know. There are so many different components. Me, I’m really good about letting go once I audition. How did you amass all this wisdom, at your young age? [Laughs] I don’t know! I think it’s like everything in life; if you wallow in it, then you’ll get stuck in it and that’s kind of when things manifest, or don’t manifest. So when I left the audition, obviously I still wanted it. But I wasn’t worried about whether I would get it or not because I knew that I did everything I could do, and if someone else did it better, then good for them. That’s great. I like this outlook on life. It’s so positive. [Smiles] I like my life, and I think that’s probably why. So you prepared yourself to potentially not get the Descendants gig. But once you did… In January of 2010, I got a call from him saying that I booked it. [Pause] I started crying. How did you and George develop your daughter-father bond? When we first meet the both of you, there’s a painful, muddled history there and a huge divide. Was it tricky to strike that familiar yet distanced dynamic? No. I mean, George is one of the most down to earth, if not the most down to earth guy I’ve ever met in my entire life — in this industry or outside this industry. He’s just a super human. There was no intimidation factor in working with “George Clooney,” it was just like working with an amazing actor and phenomenal human being. As far as the history of the characters, we really as actors had it so easy and are lucky to have had Alexander Payne, because the words were so easy that I really didn’t have to do a lot of thinking or research on my character. Everything I could have ever asked was there on the page. Hawaiian culture and history is ingrained in the story, sort of in the background of this character study. How much did you consider your character’s haole heritage? She’s got Hawaiian blood, many generations removed, and that is an important element. Yeah, totally. I had never been to Hawaii, and now I say that my body is from L.A. but my heart is from Hawaii, because I’m in love with it and it’s home on every level, from a spiritual, soulful place. But it was really interesting. I learned a lot about it; I learned that, obviously, America took it over illegally, as we did all of America. But it’s a very new colony to America and there’s still a lot of indigenous culture that is present in Hawaii today. There are true descendants, so when we did this film I met with actual descendants of Hawaiian royalty, of land. That was really interesting, to hear their stories and how the land was passed onto them. The scene where they’re in Kauai and Alex is looking over the land, I thought that was a very powerful moment because even though that scene is more about George making his decision based on the land, for me - for Alex’s standpoint — it was beautiful because she was thinking in her mind, “Wow, one day I’m going to own this if my dad doesn’t sell. I’m going to own this land.” That was powerful in itself, for a 17-year-old to have that wisdom and that knowledge of inheriting that land. Especially because in the beginning, she’s so contained and consumed within herself. Totally. She definitely breaks down her walls and becomes a citizen of the world. The Hawaiian aspect and the King family’s connection to their own heritage adds a lot more to the conversation, especially when it comes to the topic of developing Hawaii. Does that make it more complex, from your point of view, to play Alex? On a personal level, I definitely take the indigenous Hawaiian side over the industrialist, business-minded side. There was a sense of her being a haole but also being a Hawaiian, of her inheriting this land but doing nothing to inherit it. I think the movie talks a lot about that through Matt King’s words and through his world. But it was very interesting to get to know Hawaii as a local, and that was priceless. I’m so fortunate to have been there for four months and to have met such interesting people. I got to meet people who were 100 percent full-blooded Hawaiian, which is rare to none nowadays. And I got to meet people who were “haole as shit,” as Matt King says, who had never even surfed in their life but still had Hawaiian blood in them. So it was interesting, the different people who live on the island and the way they all look at it. A lot of Hawaiians are bitter toward America because of the way that we took over their islands. As The Descendants picks up steam, we’re seeing you on more and more of these “Young Hollywood” — type panels. What has it been like to be thrust into the spotlight with other up and coming actors, poised for some big collective moment? It’s interesting because you do get thrust into a panel of a certain amount of people and you’re like, “Hi.” And they’re like, “Hey.” And you see them everywhere. Anton Yelchin, I met him at the Hamptons Film Festival and my best friend knows him so that was a connection that we made, and so now every event we go to I just latch onto him because I’m like, you’re a familiar face and I know you’re cool and down to earth and normal, so let’s just be friends and do this together. But everyone I’ve met so far has been awesome. And all of you come to it from such different places. Yeah, such different paths! We talk a little bit about that, but for the most part you show up to something for the press and you do it, then you go back to your own lives. So you really only see them when you’re answering questions about your own films, and you don’t get to talk about your personal life. I’m curious about the way you see your career; you seem just detached enough that you have a very healthy outlook on this business. Yeah, I’m very detached. As you move more into film work and continue your work on Secret Life, what is your approach to those two paths, film and TV? I’m so lucky to work on Secret Life. It’s been four years and we’re like a family, and it’s nice to have that routine of going to work every day with the same people. And we’re so lucky, because ABC Family and the showrunner, Brenda Hampton, give us time off to do films. No studio, no network, no showrunners do that. I mean, they let me go for four months to do this movie, and they sent my character to NY. Another actress on the show, she has two movies coming out at the beginning of next year and they let her off to go and do that, so it’s not like they just do it for me. They do it for everyone. And that’s a rarity, to find a network that’ll let you do films while you’re also doing a TV show. So we’re lucky, because I’m looking forward to being able to balance both. You have two more seasons left on the show. After that, what are you thinking you’ll do? Then, I would love to only do film. I love TV work, but film is where my heart is. You began acting at a young age; when you started out, what did you want out of it all? As a kid, I never wanted to be in magazines. I never wanted to be that stupid “F” word, famous. I never wanted to be an “S” word, star. For me it was all about the art of acting. I remember being an 8-year-old and saying, “I’m going to be a third-grade teacher and on the side, I’ll act.” [Laughs] I don’t want to be a third-grade teacher anymore, but I do want to always acting be my hobby and it be fun. The day it becomes tedious or the day it becomes something I feel I have to do for money, or because of the industry, or because of some silly image, is the day I quit. If it’s not fueling something, why would I do it? The Descendants is in limited release. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter. Tagged: alexander payne, george clooney, hawaii, matt king, shailene woodley, the descendants, the secret life of the american teenager

Natalie Wood Dying Analysis Reopened

Inside a shocking development, the La County Sheriff's Department stated Thursday it's reopening its situation within the dying of actress Natalie Wood.our editor recommendsRobert Wagner Responds to Natalie Wood InvestigationNatalie Wood: A Hollywood Icon Remembered'48 Hours' Natalie Wood Special Discloses Boat Captain's Untold Story (Video)Natalie Wood: 5 of Her Most Memorable Roles (Video)Hollywood's Notable DeathsThe Hollywood Reporter's 80th Anniversary: 'The Legends' IssueRelated Subjects•Obituaries•Natalie Wood Wood died almost 30 years ago at 43 while boating off Santa Catalina Island, from the Los Angeles shoreline. At that time, her dying was ruled an accidental drowning, but there has been many questions elevated by what really happened included within the time since. PHOTOS: Best Pictures of Natalie Wood "Lately, sheriff's homicide researchers were approached by persons who mentioned they'd more information concerning the Natalie Wood Wagner drowning," the department stated, reported by the La Occasions. "Because of the extra information, sheriff's homicide bureau has made the decision to visit again the situation." The department has scheduled a press conference for 11 a.m. Friday. Around the evening of November. 29, 1981, Wood and her then-husband Robert Wagner went boating with Christopher Walken. The trio had dinner and drinks at Doug's Harbor Reef after which ongoing consuming aboard the boat, where Wagner and Walken started quarrelling. PHOTOS: Hollywood's Greatest Deaths and Surprises Throughout the argument, Wood visited mattress, so when Wagner came lower to express goodnight, she vanished. Speculation has it the dinghy came loose, and she or he went on deck to tie it when she accidentally ended up and fell overboard. A lady on the nearby yacht apparently stated to possess heard requires help around night time, also it was later came to the conclusion that Wood -- who apparently wasn't an experienced swimmer coupled with a long term anxiety about deep water coupled with been putting on huge robe -- have been intoxicated at that time. However, others have thought that the lover's quarrel between Wood and Wagner which had related to Walken happened prior to the accident.During the time of her dying, she was filming the sci-fi movieBrainstormwith Walken. PHOTOS: Who Counts like a Hollywood Legend For his part, Wagner has stated he places blame themself for that incident. "Did I blame myself? Basically'd had the experience, I possibly could did something," he told the U.K.'s Daily Mail last year. "I wasn't, but ultimately, a guy accounts for his family member. Yes, I blamed myself. I'd did anything on the planet to safeguard her. Anything. I lost a lady I loved with all of my heart, not once but two times, and that i won't ever completely be prepared for that." Lana Wood, the actress' sister, and Dennis Davern, the captain from the yacht at that time, known as for that department to reopen its analysis at least a year ago. Lana Wood told CNN in March 2010 that they thought her sister and Wagner contended before Wood's dying, but she didn't suspect foul play. "Among the finest the reality to be released, the actual story," she stated. UPDATE:Robert Wagner Responds to Natalie Wood Analysis Davern -- co-authored a magazine concerning the incident, Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Beauty, which was released in September 2009 -- also stated he thinks the actress' dying was a result of your dream with Wagner. Davern and the co-author, Marti Rulli, is going to be featured in 48 Hrs special which will air Saturday on CBS.48 Hrs Presents Vanity Fair: Hollywood Scandalteases a brand new consider the analysis within the actress' dying by asking, "How did Natalie Wood, while moored from the coast of Catalina Island, finish up drowning one dark, drunken, volatile evening almost 30 years ago?Inch Wood resided her existence out while watching cameras, being a child star with your movies because the 1947 Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street which same year's The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. She continued to co-star with James DeanandSal Mineoin 1955's Digital rebel With no Cause, that she gained a best supporting actress Oscar nomination, after which made an appearance opposite John Wayne in 1956's The People. VIDEO: ཬ Hrs' Natalie Wood Special Discloses Boat Captain's Untold Story She then gained another Oscar nomination for 1961's Splendor within the Grass, opposite Warren Beatty, and co-starred within the musical adaptations of West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962). Other credits include 1965's The Truly Amazing Race, with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Peter Falkand 1964's Love Using the Proper Stranger, which gained her another Oscar nom and 1969's Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. Wood was married to Wagner two times, from 1957-62 and again from 1972 until her dying. They'd one child, a daughter named Courtney, and made an appearance togehter in projects such as the TV movie The Affair and TV adaptation of Cat on the Hot Container Roof. Related Subjects Obituaries Natalie Wood Robert Wagner

'Breaking Dawn' nabs $30.3 mil at midnight

'Twilight: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1' got off to a franchise-best start, grossing $30.3 million in midnight grosses."Twilight" fans nationwide turned out in droves Thursday night for the franchise's latest offering, "Breaking Dawn -- Part 1," shelling out a series-best $30.3 million in midnight grosses.Summit's penultimate "Twilight" installment, at 3,521 late-night U.S. engagements, narrowly beat its predecessor "Eclipse," which tallied $30 million last year at midnight screenings.Late-night take bodes well for the newest "Twilight" pic's weekend perf, as it looks to tally somewhere between $140 million and $150 million, according to the most optimistic pre-weekend tracking services. Though "Eclipse" bowed midweek last summer -- a heightened play period for teen and tween auds -- to nearly $158 million in its first six days, 2009's "New Moon" tallied $26.3 million in midnights and went on to gross $143 million opening weekend (the same weekend as "Breaking Dawn").Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" still holds the all-time record for midnight grosses at $43.5 million."Breaking Dawn" expands today to a total 4,061 Stateside locations, with an additional 54 overseas territories bowing the pic day-and-date this weekend via local distribs. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com

For Kendall Cornell Clowning is a Woman's Business

For Kendall Cornell Clowning is a Woman's Business By Simi Horwitz November 17, 2011 Kendall Cornell Sporting red clown noses and an array of quirky hats and eccentric costumes, the nine clowning women who make up Clowns Ex Machina raise lofty questions about art, commerce, and beauty while rendering such a heady discussion absurd. With squeals, grunts, calisthenic moves, and zany audience interaction, the all-distaff troupe employs such iconic images as Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World" and the drowning scene in "A Place in the Sun" as vehicles for pointed and hilarious comedy about women's sense of self and the society that informs those views. The most brutal and entertaining send-up features ballet dancers in all their daintiness, fluttering and twirling about. But in this wonderfully twisted vision, plastic nipples are prominently displayed at breast level atop the dancers' leotards, with one ballerina's nipples totally asymmetrical, as is her butt. Now celebrating its fifth year on the scene, Clowns Ex Machina is premiering its latest and fourth full-length multimedia work, "Clowns Full-Tilt: A Musing on Aesthetics," at Off-Broadway's legendary La MaMa theater. Although women clowns have existed throughout the ages, Ex Machina is anomalous, says Kendall Cornell, who heads the company. Indeed, she suggests it may be one of the few, if not the only, all-woman clown companies of its size performing anywhere. Traditions and self-imposed restrictions die hard for women."Clowning is physical, openhearted, and revealing," Cornell says. "Being unselfconscious in a physical way could be more challenging for women." Yet Cornell balks at the idea that women have additional obstacles as clowns because they're not naturally funny. It's a clich that has no traction. Still, women clowns are going to explore different territory from their male counterparts, she points out, taking pride in the range of talents on display and the use of song, dance, and text in her shows. Male clowns may sing and dance, she acknowledges, but female voices and dances carry their own sensibility.That female sensibility extends to their comedy as well, she says, offering examples. A woman clown cradling a trombone like a baby is different from a male clown performing the same act. For almost inexplicable, subtle reasons, the woman clown is probably funnier. Similarly, if male clowns do a riff on ballet, it becomes a commentary on masculinity versus femininity, delicacy versus klutziness. When a woman clown tackles ballet, the comedy shifts a little because women, unlike men, dream of being delicate and graceful. The contrast between fantasy and reality may bring another dimension to the comedy. "But I also have my own aesthetic," Cornell says. "It's sophisticated and intelligent as opposed to slapstick."This fresh vision subtly reinterprets social assumptions and turns them on their head, and that's where the comedy lies. "Though the audience may not know exactly why they think it's funny," Cornell notes. "Men and women may have different experiences. Sometimes men are not sure they should be laughing. One guy told me he laughed and then wondered about it. Our clowning is layered. I don't like cheap laughs. I especially don't like women to sell themselves cheap. I like to shine a light on women in a certain way. I value their humor and unseen side. I'm interested in feminist issues. Is that a political statement? I don't know."Emotional Access Brought up in Rockland County, N.Y., Cornell planned to be an actor. After graduating from Swarthmore with a degree in English and art history, she moved to NY to continue her studies in acting and dance. Along the way she found herself drawn to comic acting and attended a workshop on physical comedy given by clown David Shiner, perhaps best known for his collaboration with Bill Irwin on "Fool Moon.""It changed my life," Cornell recalls. "It was the frying pan to the head. I knew this is what I wanted to do." Cornell went on to study with French clown teacher Philippe Gaulier, who champions playfulness and that elusive sense of complicity among the clowns onstage and with the audience, Cornell notes.Cornell has been creating and performing clown work for 17 years. Her solo pieces have been presented at La MaMa, the N.Y. Clown Theatre Festival, Festival de Internacional Pallasses, Dixon Place, and the 92nd Street Y, among other venues in NY and abroad. Forging ensemble pieces is an especially complex process; it takes approximately a year and a half a show. "It's done in stages," she says. "We start from zero. It's an intense five-week rehearsal period, and then we separate for approximately three months before coming together again. But during that time I continue creating."The company has employed more than 20 women clowns, who boast an amalgam of backgrounds in theater, dance, singing, and improvisation. Most are multidisciplinary, though one clown is a straight actor. "You need to be a good actor to be a good clown," Cornell says. "You need emotional access."Cornell believes an influx of women in clowning is the logical evolution in an art form that could become stale. Women may bring just the right reviving freshness to the proceedings."Clowns Full-Tilt: A Musing on Aesthetics" is playing at La MaMa's First Floor Theatre, 74A E. Fourth St., N.Y., through Nov. 20. (212) 475-7710. www.LaMaMa.org.Outtakes Was commissioned by Cirque du Soleil to create a clown extravaganza with her clowns for the NYC opening of its circus "Corteo"Assisted David Shiner in directing the circus spectacle "Pomp, Duck and Circumstance"Was nominated for "Clown of the Year" by the NY Downtown Clown RevueAs an actor has appeared in plays with Waterline Theatre Company and in "Danny & the Deep Blue Sea" and "Miss Julie" with Moxie Productions, among others For Kendall Cornell Clowning is a Woman's Business By Simi Horwitz November 17, 2011 Kendall Cornell Sporting red clown noses and an array of quirky hats and eccentric costumes, the nine clowning women who make up Clowns Ex Machina raise lofty questions about art, commerce, and beauty while rendering such a heady discussion absurd. With squeals, grunts, calisthenic moves, and zany audience interaction, the all-distaff troupe employs such iconic images as Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World" and the drowning scene in "A Place in the Sun" as vehicles for pointed and hilarious comedy about women's sense of self and the society that informs those views. The most brutal and entertaining send-up features ballet dancers in all their daintiness, fluttering and twirling about. But in this wonderfully twisted vision, plastic nipples are prominently displayed at breast level atop the dancers' leotards, with one ballerina's nipples totally asymmetrical, as is her butt. Now celebrating its fifth year on the scene, Clowns Ex Machina is premiering its latest and fourth full-length multimedia work, "Clowns Full-Tilt: A Musing on Aesthetics," at Off-Broadway's legendary La MaMa theater. Although women clowns have existed throughout the ages, Ex Machina is anomalous, says Kendall Cornell, who heads the company. Indeed, she suggests it may be one of the few, if not the only, all-woman clown companies of its size performing anywhere. Traditions and self-imposed restrictions die hard for women."Clowning is physical, openhearted, and revealing," Cornell says. "Being unselfconscious in a physical way could be more challenging for women." Yet Cornell balks at the idea that women have additional obstacles as clowns because they're not naturally funny. It's a clich that has no traction. Still, women clowns are going to explore different territory from their male counterparts, she points out, taking pride in the range of talents on display and the use of song, dance, and text in her shows. Male clowns may sing and dance, she acknowledges, but female voices and dances carry their own sensibility.That female sensibility extends to their comedy as well, she says, offering examples. A woman clown cradling a trombone like a baby is different from a male clown performing the same act. For almost inexplicable, subtle reasons, the woman clown is probably funnier. Similarly, if male clowns do a riff on ballet, it becomes a commentary on masculinity versus femininity, delicacy versus klutziness. When a woman clown tackles ballet, the comedy shifts a little because women, unlike men, dream of being delicate and graceful. The contrast between fantasy and reality may bring another dimension to the comedy. "But I also have my own aesthetic," Cornell says. "It's sophisticated and intelligent as opposed to slapstick."This fresh vision subtly reinterprets social assumptions and turns them on their head, and that's where the comedy lies. "Though the audience may not know exactly why they think it's funny," Cornell notes. "Men and women may have different experiences. Sometimes men are not sure they should be laughing. One guy told me he laughed and then wondered about it. Our clowning is layered. I don't like cheap laughs. I especially don't like women to sell themselves cheap. I like to shine a light on women in a certain way. I value their humor and unseen side. I'm interested in feminist issues. Is that a political statement? I don't know."Emotional Access Brought up in Rockland County, N.Y., Cornell planned to be an actor. After graduating from Swarthmore with a degree in English and art history, she moved to NY to continue her studies in acting and dance. Along the way she found herself drawn to comic acting and attended a workshop on physical comedy given by clown David Shiner, perhaps best known for his collaboration with Bill Irwin on "Fool Moon.""It changed my life," Cornell recalls. "It was the frying pan to the head. I knew this is what I wanted to do." Cornell went on to study with French clown teacher Philippe Gaulier, who champions playfulness and that elusive sense of complicity among the clowns onstage and with the audience, Cornell notes.Cornell has been creating and performing clown work for 17 years. Her solo pieces have been presented at La MaMa, the N.Y. Clown Theatre Festival, Festival de Internacional Pallasses, Dixon Place, and the 92nd Street Y, among other venues in NY and abroad. Forging ensemble pieces is an especially complex process; it takes approximately a year and a half a show. "It's done in stages," she says. "We start from zero. It's an intense five-week rehearsal period, and then we separate for approximately three months before coming together again. But during that time I continue creating."The company has employed more than 20 women clowns, who boast an amalgam of backgrounds in theater, dance, singing, and improvisation. Most are multidisciplinary, though one clown is a straight actor. "You need to be a good actor to be a good clown," Cornell says. "You need emotional access."Cornell believes an influx of women in clowning is the logical evolution in an art form that could become stale. Women may bring just the right reviving freshness to the proceedings."Clowns Full-Tilt: A Musing on Aesthetics" is playing at La MaMa's First Floor Theatre, 74A E. Fourth St., N.Y., through Nov. 20. (212) 475-7710. www.LaMaMa.org.Outtakes Was commissioned by Cirque du Soleil to create a clown extravaganza with her clowns for the NYC opening of its circus "Corteo"Assisted David Shiner in directing the circus spectacle "Pomp, Duck and Circumstance"Was nominated for "Clown of the Year" by the NY Downtown Clown RevueAs an actor has appeared in plays with Waterline Theatre Company and in "Danny & the Deep Blue Sea" and "Miss Julie" with Moxie Productions, among others

Occupy Protesters Return to Zuccotti Park After Judge Orders Eviction

Protestors on Occupy Wall Street were faced with more obstacles on Tuesday, Nov. 15 when police raided Zuccotti Park in the early hours before dawn. Protestors were evicted from the park and stripped of their camping equipment after a judge ruled in favor of NY City and park owner Brookfield Office Properties Inc. Approximately 200 protestors were arrested.our editor recommendsMedia Kept at Distance as NY Police Clear Occupy Wall Street EncampmentHow Music Is Playing an Integral Role in the Occupy Wall Street ProtestsJay-Zs Occupy Wall Street T-Shirts Removed After Criticism PHOTOS: The Scene at Occupy Wall Street Later that day, the two parties faced off against Occupy Wall Street Reps in the courtroom. Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman ultimately sided with the city, ruling that camping in the park was not free speech protected by the First Amendment, though protestors could return to the park without their tents and other equipment, reports the Wall Street Journal. The park remained closed through the majority of the day, with hundreds of protestors awaiting the judge's decision outside a barricaded area and others staging an impromptu rally nearby, which resulted in several additional arrests. PHOTOS: 'Occupy Wall Street Hollywood': Entertainers on Scene of Protests Meanwhile, approximately 100 members of the Occupy LA movement broke from their main encampment to march through a downtown street and show unity with their NY counterpart. There were no arrests or use of force. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg held a news conference that afternoon, in which he expressed concern over the healthy and safety conditions in the park, according to the NY Times. PHOTOS: The Scene at Occupy Los Angeles "NY City is the city where you can come and express yourself," he said. "What was happening in Zuccotti Park was not that." The park was reopened shortly after dark, allowing protestors to return to their movement in a single file line. According to a post on OccupyWallStreet.org, NYPD are currently occupying Liberty Square with unclear demands. Related Topics Occupy

Todd Holland To Direct NBCs Comedy Pilot Isabel

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy winner Todd Holland has been tapped to direct NBCs single-camera comedy Isabel. The project, a family comedy with a magical twist, was written on spec by Howard Busgang and Tom Nursall. Inspired by the French-Canadian series Le Monde De Charlotte, it centers on an otherwise normal angry middle-class family that wrestles with the challenges of everyday life while raising a daughter who has magical qualities. In addition to directing, Holland, who is based at Universal TV with producing partner Karey Burke, will also serve as an executive producer on the pilot alongside Aaron Kaplan, French-Canadian TV producer Jocelyn Deschenes, Busgang and Nursall. Hollands directing work on another single-camera family comedy, Foxs Malcolm In the Middle, earned him one of his 3 Emmy awards (the other 2 were for episodes of Malcolm and The Larry Sanders Show). He most recently directed the pilot for NBC’s comedy series Free Agents.

The Issue to Guest-Star on Suburgatory

Mike "The ProblemInch Sorrentino Everything will the and surrounding and surrounding suburbs. Mike "The ProblemInch Sorrentino will guest-star on Suburgatory, a show repetition certifies.Exclusive Suburgatory video: How come Tessa letting Dallas to supersize her birthday plans?Playing themselves, the Jersey Shoreline star will DJ a dance at Tessa's school, where we're banking on seeing some fist pumps. Sorrentino's episode will air next season.Suburgatory airs Wednesdays at 8:30/7:30c on ABC.

NBC shuts lower production on 'Suspect'

NBC is shutting lower production on "Prime Suspect." Show remained within the lurch following Monday's announcement the Maria Bello starrer wouldn't possess a devote the midseason schedule. Procedural, from Universal Television, presently airs at 10 p.m. Thursday and can be changed by "The Firm," which starts its regular run Jan. 12. "Prime Suspect" has lengthy been a popular from the network and topper Bob Greenblatt, but audiences haven't accepted the skein. "Suspect" is calculating single.6 rating/4 be part of the 18-49 demo and 5.8 million total audiences. In attempting to generate some viewer retention, Greenblatt double-pumped the show -- running it two times in a single week -- however the amounts haven't enhanced. As the skein is not formally canceled, the halt in production likely means the show is going to be permanently from the air after its 13-episode order. With only "Up Through The Night" and "Grimm" the only real new shows working well around the NBC sked, internet is searching toward midseason. Not simply will "The Firm" debut, but Greenblatt has high anticipation for that Katharine McPhee-Debra Playing starrer "Smash." And there is also the return on reality hit "The Voice," which begins its second season February. 6. Contact Stuart Levine at stuart.levine@variety.com

Safe Trailer: Jason Statham Kicks Ass, Boasts About His Balls

In the new Jason Statham thriller Safe, which comes out on the Oscar-unfriendly date of March 2, our gritty hero must protect a 12-year-old girl who can “memorize anything.” Would you beat up a bunch of trained hoodlums to protect a preteen with savant tendencies? Is memorization that necessary a skill anymore? I would just buy an almanac or a flash drive and let the girl fend for herself. But Jason chose differently! Click through for the trailer’s carnage and some of Statham’s old-fashioned testicle touting. Yep, yep. Do you like subway fight choreography? In that case, do you still watch Ghost on TBS and freak out at Swayze’s interaction with the creepy subway freak? Yeah, me too. I wish Safe featured more paranormal fighting, not just this regular-joe jujitsu dancing. Yawn. This movie is pretty much indistinguishable from the 45 Jason Statham movies to come out in the past four months. Hey, though: His balls are so big, it’s hard to believe he can walk! That was a great cinematic moment for Statty. More cajones cajokes in his next 27 movies, please. Save some for Channing Tatum too. The Son of No One needed way more scrotum hokum. Verdict: Too damn safe ‘Safe’ Trailer [/Film]

James McAvoy, 'Arthur Christmas' Star, on Voice Acting and Getting Better

By Caroline Frost "I wanted Arthur to be really appealing without being cute, with soft hair that would make you want to pat him," is how 'Arthur Christmas' director Sarah Smith envisioned her lead character. Is that James McAvoy? It is now. "I thought I was auditioning, but it turned out, I actually already had the gig, which was a bonus," is how the softly-spoken Scottish actor remembers it. McAvoy is one of the UK's most in-demand young actors, after delving into a fantasy world as the wide-eyed Mr. Tumnus in 'The Chronicles of Narnia,' opposite Angelina Jolie in 'Wanted,' engaging with the science of 'X Men: First Class' and brooding wartime drama in 'Atonement,' under his belt. In 'Arthur Christmas' voices the title role of Arthur, the younger son of the Santa Claus dynasty, in the animated Christmas fairytale. Arthur's family are charged with the duty of delivering presents to all the children in the world, with some help from 21st century technology and a million hardworking elves. McAvoy, who also has animation experience from 'Gnomeo and Juliet,' said the exercise of voicing a role still throws him. "It's very strange," he said in London. "You're an integral part of the team and your voice creates what's happening, but you're not even there 99% of the time, and when you are, there's no one else in the room, so you feel isolated. It's a strange, disjointed process." That said, it definitely has some benefits. "It's very freeing, you can be somebody else entirely, not just in the normal way of acting, but when your physicality doesn't matter, it's just about what your voice can do. I did a lot of radio when I first started out, and it's not that different." Plus, for McAvoy, it meant the chance to work with such British stalwarts as Oscar winner Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, Ashley Jensen, Hugh Laurie and his old castmate from TV's State of Play, Bill Nighy -- whom McAvoy calls "an incredibly cool, cool guy." McAvoy already has other projects in the pipeline, from London thriller 'Welcome to the Punch' to an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's best-seller 'Filth.' After achieving this level of success, does McAvoy feel any different? "I think 'The Last King of Scotland' was probably the turning point," he remembers of the epic biopic that told the story of Idi Amin and his doctor, played by McAvoy. "People saw I could be that guy who could help tell the film's story. And because Forrest won the Oscar, and it was a critical hit, it meant lots of directors and studio people saw it, and therefore saw me." Despite his current run of success, there is no hint that McAvoy is resting on his laurels, in fact it's quite the reverse. "The challenge is that we all want to get better, and we're all capable of being bad," he says of his increasingly high profile. "As you get more recognition from audiences and professionals alike, you're not allowed to fail, that's the hard thing. The scary thing is it can become about getting it right instead of just doing it, seeing what happens and being brave. "Sometimes you get tempted to be less brave, do something easier. But that's not how you've got where you are, so that's the challenge. Hopefully, you've racked up enough good things, so by the time there's a bad one, they'll forgive you." This post originally appeared on Huffington Post UK [Photo: FilmMagic] Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook RELATED

Oscar Show Producer Substitutes: Otherwise John Grazer, Then Who?

Michael Loccisano/Getty Images The Academy hasn't skipped the late, great Oscar show producer Gil Cates a lot more than it will today, because it seeks a alternative for Brett Ratner, who was simply likely to serve for the reason that convenience of Feb's 84th Oscars. Ratner posted his resignation yesterday determination number of comments that upset many in the market, and Eddie Murphy, whom Ratner directed within the film Tower Heist and employed for everyone because the host of the year's Academy awards, also withdrew in the show today, departing things out of balance. As THR reported today, Academy leader Tom Sherak arrived at to John Grazer, the 60-year-old producer and co-chief of Imagine Entertainment, concerning the job -- but that communication might have occurred before Murphy withdrew in the show. Grazer, who won the very best picture Oscar for any Beautiful Mind (2001), made lots of sense when Murphy was still being on-board: he offered like a producer on Tower Heist and was credited through the actor with "saving" the film if this went into trouble throughout development. It's less obvious, though, if he'd be needed or amenable since the conditions have transformed. THR continues to be surveying the for ideas about other candidates whom the Academy might tap if things don't exercise with Grazer. Two leading options include... Scott Sanders, the 54-year-old theater producer, who had been stated to become a finalist with this year's job prior to the decision is made to choose Ratner. Sanders, who won a Tony for creating the main one-lady show Elaine Stritch: At Liberty (2002), comes highly suggested by Academy faves Quincy Johnson, Harvey Weinstein, and The famous host oprah Winfrey, with whom he created the hit Broadway musical adaptation from the Color Crimson, which obtained 11 Tony nods. Bill Condon, the 56-year-old author/director, who won the very best modified script Oscar for Gods & Monsters (1998), was nominated for this again for Chicago (2002), and subsequently directed Murphy in Dreamgirls (2006), that the actor received the lone Oscar nomination of his career. Furthermore, Condon offered because the executive producer from the 81st Oscars, that was located by Hugh Jackman and was among the best Oscar shows in recent memory. (Laurence Mark was producer.) Obviously, the Academy might always achieve out again to past Oscar show producers like Bruce Cohen, Laurence Mark, Joe Roth, and Adam Shankman, who could hit the floor running. Academy awards 2012

NBC Orders Magical Family Comedy Pilot

NBC has given out an plane pilot order to Isabel, only one-camera family comedy getting a twist from producer Aaron Kaplan. The network bought the project on spec, which was put together by Howard Busgang and Tom Nursall. The Two developed the comedy with Kaplan and French Canadian TV producer Jocelyn Deschenes through their Kapital Entertainment and Sphere Media, correspondingly. Inspired with the French Canadian series Le Monde P Charlotte now now, Isabel concentrates on a normally normal angry middle-class family that wrestles while using challenges every single day existence while raising a daughter which has magical qualities. Busgang, Nursall, Kaplan and Deschenes are needed to executive produce. Casting is starting immediately, while using pilot slated to shoot in La. Canadian-born Busgang and Nursall are La-based but have spent the ultimate few years working mainly in Canada as designers/authors/executive producers. This marks the tenth pilot order for 28-month-old Kapital Entertainment. This season alone, it is the organization’s third, with the Kirstie Alley-starring comedy The Manzanis at ABC as well as the untitled Serta Fogelman comedy, also at ABC. That signifies half of off-cycle aircraft aircraft pilots bought with the broadcast systems up to now this year. Having its magical elements, Isabel taps to the fairytale genre that's red-colored-colored-hot at this time with breakout new series, ABC’s Not Such A Long Time Ago and NBC’s Grimm. For NBC, this really is really the 2nd early pilot order with the cast-contingent pickup for comedy Save Me. Busgang and Nursall are with Canada’s Figures Talent Agency and Circle Of Confusion.

Why Foreign exchange Wager Large on Charlie Sheen's 'Anger Management'

When Foreign exchange Network leader John Landgraf first heard the pitch for Charlie Sheen's Anger Management on March. 7, handful of thought he'd bite. The executive built his status on such edgy homegrown fare as Sons of Anarchy and Louie, which he remains freely skeptical in the distribution model working, whereby 10 cases of Anger will probably be produced just like a test run for 90 additional half-several hours. PHOTOS: Charlie Sheen's Colorful Career But Landgraf and also the staff were astonished by showrunner Bruce Helford's pitch, which has Sheen playing a version of Jack Nicholson's character within the 2003 movie of the title. Sheen's character, a classic professional athlete with rage issues, becomes considering psychology because of a girl, who works like a friend and counselor for the character (who also provides a 13-year-old daughter along with his still-friendly ex-wife). STORY: Charlie Sheen's 'Anger Management' Pickup Sparks Mixed Reactions "It's a significant simple setup," states an insider in the series, which will air in summer season 2012, likely before 10 p.m., and might be coupled with Foreign exchange reruns of Sheen's two and a half Males. Sheen's desire for the project and the choice to experience a personality who knows his struggles will be a promising sign regarding their own condition. "Charlie wants to get this show good," adds an origin, "which he offers a great deal riding on getting it's effective." Related Subjects Charlie Sheen Foreign exchange

Burn Notice's Gabrielle Anwar: This is the Most Vulnerable Michael and Fiona Have Ever Been

Jeffrey Donovan and Gabrielle Anwar On-screen, he's one of the men that burned Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) from the CIA years ago and the man now blackmailing Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) for blowing up the consulate and killing two men. Yes, Burn Notice's big bad Anson (Jere Burns) has made many enemies. Off-screen, it's a different story. "I love this character of Anson so much," Anwar tells TVGuide.com. "Just how clever and how manipulative and how intelligent he is in the way that he can control the mechanisms of these characters. ... We're being devoured, essentially, so it's been a very pleasurable season to work on." Following the shocking reveal in the midseason finale that Anson was part of the organization that burned Michael, Anson will be the one pulling the strings (for now) when the spy drama returns Thursday at 10/9c on USA. But what is he blackmailing Michael and Fiona for? How long will he try to control them? And can they find a way to break free? Anwar talked to TVGuide.com about those questions and more of what's coming up. Watch full episodes of Burn Notice Why do you think this was the right time in the series for Michael to meet the man that burned him? Gabrielle Anwar: Anson, who is such a despicable character and brilliantly played by Jere Burns, has been waiting for Michael and Fiona to reach a point in their relationship where Michael cannot live without her. It's the one weak point that Michael has, and up until this point, I don't think it's been weak enough. How did you find out who Anson really was? Did you receive any advance warning? Anwar: I was as surprised as some of the audience members. I actually don't really know what's going to happen in advance, which makes my life much more exciting as I read the scripts. It's a great impetus to keep going through the season as it gets more and more tiring with the more stunts and the more hours. It was a surprise to me, and I think it's fantastic. It's a wonderful twist to add at this late time in the game. USA renews Burn Notice for two more seasons How will Anson's presence and the threat he holds over Fiona affect the dynamic of the show? Anwar: Both Michael and Fiona are at the mercy of Anson now. ... and there's not very much they can do about it except to endure this emotional and professional blackmail. It gets really, really intense at certain points in the next couple of episodes. When the show returns, what kind of emotions is Fiona feeling now that she realizes what exactly what Anson has over her? Anwar: She has such a diverse response to being controlled by anybody. It is the most troubling emotion for her to experience - for her to be controlled by anything or anybody. She is very reluctant for Michael to participate in any of Anson's exploits and I think that she's very willing to surrender from the get-go rather than let this sick character get his way with her. What keeps Fiona from surrendering and what keeps Michael from letting her do that? Anwar: Michael is as repulsed by the idea as she is, and I think that he is under the impression that there has to be something that he can do to rectify the situation. Michael feels as equally as powerless as Fiona. It's the first time they've ever let themselves become so vulnerable - not only with each other, but in a professional environment. The two of them are both clinging to some glimmer of hope that they will be able to get the upper hand over Anson, which is what propels the next few episodes until the season finale. Check out photos from Burn Notice Will the threat of Anson bring Michael and Fiona closer together or put some new cracks in their relationship? Anwar: Michael and Fiona have an incredibly cracked relationship even on a good day. I think there are definitely some fractures that happen under pressure in any relationship, but particularly under this kind of intensity. But having said that, the immense amount of respect and affection that they have for each other can only be a good thing. Their relationship may be cracked, but Michael and Fiona have still come a long way since the beginning of the series. What has been the biggest surprise for you about their evolution as a couple? Anwar: The biggest surprise is that they're still going. When I read the episode where Fiona actually moves into Michael's loft, I was really surprised. I wasn't expecting any domestic bliss anytime soon. So that kind of really threw me. But I've loved the last season and sharing that space with him. It's been very amusing for me to be moving in my linens and my fruit platters and filling the refrigerator with something other than yogurt - it's been very exciting. I have experienced immense domestic bliss in this last season. It was incredibly surprising to me that the writers were willing to let Fiona live with Michael. It was very daring. Will this respect and love that they have for one another, do you think they'll ultimately be able to survive this difficult period? Anwar: God, I hope so. I'm going to have to have a little faith that if anyone is going to make it through, it's going to be Michael and Fi. I'll be very depressed if they break up. Without spoiling anything, do you think Anson will return to the show again next season? Anwar: I hope so. I have my fingers and toes crossed.