Thompson On Hollywood

Cyrus Reps Make Big Misstep

What were they thinking? Vanity Fair can shoot 15-year-old Disney pop star Miley Cyrus in a silk bedsheet if they want to. Clearly, mighty star photographer Annie Leibovitz was persuasive; Cyrus thought she was participating in something "artistic," she told People.com, adding that from now on she would "trust my support team."

But the reps behind the Hannah Montana family brand should be ashamed of themselves, not only for showcasing their teen star as a sex object, but misreading her fanbase. It's obvious and stupid. According to Vanity Fair's statement to E.T., Cyrus's parents were at the shoot. Here's the NYT and Reuters:

"For Vanity Fair, I was so honored and thrilled to work with Annie. I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed," Cyrus said in a statement published on People magazine's Web site.

The Disney Channel backed up the rising star saying in a statement that "a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines."

No one from Vanity Fair was immediately available to comment.

But in a statement to the TV show "Entertainment Tonight," Vanity Fair defended itself.

"Miley's parents and/or minders were on the set all day. Since the photo was taken digitally, they saw it on the shoot and everyone thought it was a beautiful and natural portrait of Miley," said the magazine's statement.

Regarding the photos on the Internet, Cyrus said these were "silly, inappropriate shots" and she was sorry if she had disappointed anyone.

"I appreciate all the support of my fans, and hope they understand that along the way I am going to make mistakes and I am not perfect," she said.

"Most of all, I have let myself down. I will learn from my mistakes and trust my support team. My family and my faith will guide me through my life's journey."

UPDATE: MCN's David Poland sees nothing to make a fuss about. The LAT's Mary McNamara. And Kim Masters on NPR.

Lohan Boosted NYMag.com to 9.6 million uniques

If anyone needs proof that media investing in online can pay off handsomely, New York Magazine is the poster child. Their February fashion issue featured Lindsay Lohan channeling Marilyn Monroe with no clothes on. That month NYmag.com's online traffic skyrocketed to 9.6 million unique views, a 120% gain.

CAA DeNiro Defense Hits Forward Button

An "anonymous agent" from CAA posted this online comment on the departure of Robert DeNiro, which is now getting emailed all over town:

1. Why did Bobby leave us?

They promised they could turn back time.

They promised they could get him 20m a picture.

They promised they could get a release for his "Something happened," a Barry Levinson show biz pic that's has no market, and Mark Cuban lost a fortune on.

They promised they could get him the $1m production fee on every picture he does, that he and his partner put their names on, and do nothing to earn.

They promised they could convince Hollywood that they should still pay that 1m vig on top of his acting fees.

They promised him they'd find a respectable release for the Pacino picture he did last summer, that basically stars two 65 year old guys as detectives - while the audience is under 35, and has no interest in seeing.

As I said, they promised him they could turn back time, and make him 50 again, and relevant, and hot, and interesting to today's movie going audience.

And they probably promised that they'd find a way to erase the memory of all of America about the number of god-awful paycheck films he did during the past ten years.

DeNiro had a choice ten or so years ago. He could either go the Nicholson route - very selective, very particular, protect the brand - or go out sending himself up in tripe like Analyze this, which made money but turned him into that "old psycho guy."

And he could of concentrated on quality stuff, but instead wanted to keep funding his little empire in New York.

A year ago, Bobby came to us complaining that he was losing a fortune underwriting the film festival every year, and wanted us to find bigger corporate sponsors.

We tried, but the stumbling block was always the same thing: The corporations all thought that the Tribeca film festival was a not-for-profit organization, sponsored by the city. But when they got under the hood, they found out that it was all for the greater glory of Bobby and Jane and her husband, and the corporate stuff shied away from it. Bobby held us responsible for his own greed, his own avarice, and his own megalomania.

And it's just like the studios now ask us: Why should we pay this guy- who doesn't open a movie - the payoff to his production company, just so he can add his name as a producer.

Sure, there's more; he thought we should have delivered an Oscar for his paint-drying slow 3 hour Good Shepherd. But we couldn't.

And finally, if really want to understand why now, why today, look at the review today in Variety for the Pacino "86 Minutes" stinker. It's directed by Jon Avnet, (a career ending review), who just happens to be the director of Bobby's next movie. (With Pacino.)

Bobby blames everybody but himself for the way he's squandered his career, and refused lots of quality pictures because they wouldn't give him producer credit.

Good luck in the Hotel Business, pal.

Comment by A CAA Agent < April 9, 2008 @ 10:54 pm

Here's what Defamer calls DeNiro's best performance in years. And here's a related item at Hollywood Elsewhere, complete with amusing comments.

Weekend Boxoffice: Prom Night Beats Street Kings; Bonnie and Clyde Holds Up

Sony's happy: 21 and Prom Night are doing well. Universal is less thrilled that George Clooney's Leatherheads took a steep decline. I didn't go to Street Kings after a pal told me that it's very close to Ron Shelton and David Ayer's 2002 Dark Blue, which I liked.

Instead, I watched my biggest Yankee crush, Mike Mussina, pitch a few innings of a Yankee game, some In Treatment episodes, and the new Bonnie and Clyde DVD. The 1967 collaboration of Arthur Penn, Warren Beatty, Robert Benton and David Newman holds up really well. I remember when Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate first came out; they were the first movies I went to with my Manhattan school pals instead of my family.

And I recommend my ex-EW editor Mark Harris's well-researched and elegantly written new book Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, which paints a vivid portrait of the 60s period when both of these films were made. I had no idea that New Wavers Truffaut and Godard were interested in making movies in Hollywood, nor that they both flirted with making Bonnie and Clyde. Whenever I read one of these Hollywood books I am reminded that the more things change in Hollywood, the more thay remain the same. Check out this quote, from director Fred Zinnemann:

"If you go to France these days you are constantly involved in passionate discussions about the creative side of moviemaking. Here in Hollywood we are going in circles. We have moved into a trap, a self-imposed, self-induced trap with our dependence on best-sellers, hit plays, remakes and rehashes."

Charlton Heston Remembered

I grew up on rangy, masculine movie star Charlton Heston, who loomed large in the 60s big-screen spectacles my father loved to take me to, like El Cid, Khartoum, The Planet of the Apes and 55 Days at Peking. Heston finally succumbed after a long battle with Alzheimers Saturday. Here's the LA Times, Green Cine's wrap-up, and Dave Kehr. UPDATE: Richard Corliss tributes Heston in Time.

My favorite Heston movie, which showcases his skills as a stalwart, sexy leading man, is Orson Welles' 1958 border mystery Touch of Evil. Heston plays Mexican cop Vargas, just married to Janet Leigh; the movie takes them both down some nasty twists and turns before its conclusion. Was Heston underrated, or overrated? I was fond of him as a movie star, more than a great actor. But he acted in the style of the period.

Here's Variety's photo gallery, and the famous opening long shot:

Pitt Fires PR, Decides to Go It Alone

Radar reports that Brad Pitt has let go his long-time PR rep Cindy Guagenti. He's going to take it alone, like his partner Angelina Jolie. I've long thought that Pitt's PR was well-handled; we'll see where it goes from here. Remember what happened when Tom Cruise and Pat Kingsley parted ways?

Here's Pitt's latest announcement.

Madonna Gets It On with Hubbie

Always candid and provocative, Madonna tells us more than we want to know about her sex life with husband Guy Ritchie.

UPDATE: Here's her cover story in Vanity Fair, which also features a Madonna photo gallery look back at all her Vanity Fair layouts. I had forgotten that she did her own series of Marilyn Monroe-inspired photos, long before Lindsay Lohan.

Leatherheads: Clooney Goes Retro

George Clooney is the sort of movie star who gets to do what he wants, especially if he's willing to direct himself. In this case the period football comedy Leatherheads had been languishing on the shelf at Universal for decades, and was going to be directed by Steven Soderbergh at one time. Clooney's version is a sweetly daffy valentine to classic Hollywood screwball comedies, Coen brothers comedies and romantic comedies. Clooney stars as a handsome over-the-hill football player who's pretty smart but gets beat up on the playing field and takes plenty of pratfalls and romances a wise-cracking reporter (Renee Zellweger).

Does Clooney have the directing chops of Howark Hawks (His Girl Friday's Rosalind Russell is a model for Zellweger's tough-girl reporter) or the Coens? That's a tall order, but he does use the Coens' storyboard artist, and the film looks great. It could have been a tad sharper and faster and better, and I suspect it will have more appeal to women over 25 than anyone else. Whether the football marketing will alienate them is anyone's guess, and the critics are bound to be mixed. Here's Variety's review.

Universal has been spending heavily on Leatherheads, even giving it a Superbowl send-off spot, but I can't imagine it will make its P & A money back, much less its budget. Which will make it all the more difficult for execution-dependent, overtly uncommercial movies like this to get made. All power to Clooney for having the moxie to go for it, commerciality be damned.

UPDATE: Here's Clooney's interview with Reuters.

21 Tops Weekend: A Star is Born

I was disappointed by 21, which scored a miserable 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, at the same time that I knew that Robert Luketic had crafted an entertaining male fantasy crowd-pleaser.

21 opened surprisingly well, because it looks like fun. (The NYT's Manohla Dargis was not pleased.)

Coming off a weekend like this: Brit Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) is a rising star. He's handsome. He can act. He can carry a movie that the critics don't like. He can sing. He can woo a girl. And he can do a credible American accent. Sold. EW's Owen Gleiberman agrees. Here's Lynn Hirschberg's fall profile.

Next up: Wayne Kramer's ensemble drama about immigration, Crossing Over, starring Harrison Ford and Sean Penn, and Kari Skogland's drama Fifty Dead Men Walking, in which he stars as real-life Martin McGartland, a Brit spy who infiltrates the IRA. And possibly Spider-Man on Broadway, with Julie Taymor, who discovered him, after all.

[NYT photo by Alisdair McClellan]

Pitt/Jolie Wedding Rumors Rampant

This Huffington Post report about the various tabloid and celeb mag reports this weekend about the possible New Orleans wedding of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is fascinating. The New York Daily News, for example, reported Saturday that they were married, citing The Star website. But Sunday, Fox News relies on People Magazine's assertion that it's not true.

Jamie Lee Curtis Poses Topless

For years my husband treasured a gorgeous black-and-white nude photo of Jamie Lee Curtis (taken by a friend). And now she's posing, on the eve of her 50th birthday, with no top for AARP Magazine. (She's under water.) I've always admired Curtis's honest approach to the vagaries of stardom, from the way she was raised, posing for PR shots as the child of working actors, to how folks deal with weight and aging here.

In 2002 she generated huge reaction for a photo spread she did for More Magazine, which was her idea, showing what she really looked like before and after 13 people made her up for a glamour shoot.

Rick Baker Talks Del Toro as Wolfman

EW has exclusive pics of Benicio Del Toro as Wolfman. Who would we rather see exploring his out-of-control id, Edward Norton as The Hulk, or Benicio del Toro as The Wolfman? Hmmm.

Who's your fave Wolf Man? Michael J. Fox? Michael Landon? Or Lon Chaney (pictured)?

Video Trend: Man to Man Dating

At ShoWest, Shrek star Mike Myers admitted that he had a "man crush" on Jeffrey Katzenberg, and kept looking at his ass. Easy laugh.

When Sarah Silverman made a video announcing that she was shtupping Matt Damon, the obvious response from her boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel was to do the same with Ben Affleck.

Now the latest attention-grabbing SNL comedy short has Superbad chub-star Jonah Hill dating Andy Samberg's Dad:

Bust a taboo, kiss a man, easy laugh.

Hollywood Stars Don't Look 50

Looking good.

Star Repeaters for 2008 and 2009

Film Experience tallies who's playing multiple roles in the next year. Front and center, natch: Cate Blanchett.

[Wireimage portrait by Jeff Vespa, Toronto Film Festival, 2007.]

Madonna, Burns Turn to Alternative Distribution

You know something's wrong in Hollywood when movies with stars can't get a theater opening. Edward Burns took his latest relationship pic Purple Violets exclusively to iTunes, and Madonna is threatening to do something similar with her badly reviewed Berlin flick Filth & Wisdom. That would be an interesting test of the power of the Internet, if Madonna used her marketing machine to sell her film online.

This weekend, Ebert & Roeper critics Tony Scott and Richard Roeper did a segment about movies with marquee names that have gone direct to DVD. Scott recommended the Michele Pfeiffer/Paul Rudd romance I Could Never Be Your Woman, while Roeper thought Jennifer Lopez was strong in Gregory Nava's The Border. And here's a review of a 2001 unreleased Alan Rudolph movie finally hitting video stores.

Nowadays a minimal theatrical release is just a short-cut to the video store. With the current indie-finance glut, there are more movies seeking alternative distribution than ever, judging by how few got picked up at Sundance. Here's my column on alternative distribution on the Internet.

Many small-scale success stories are out there, as filmmakers and online distributors such as B-Side, IFC, Withoutabox, Cinequest, iTunes, Amazon and Netflix experiment with economic models. It's only a matter of time before we have more breakouts to show the way. Check out the online break-through flicks Head Trauma, Blood Car and Four Eyed Monsters (pictured) as well as the hockey doc In the Crease.

Lohan Channels Sad, Nude Monroe

The person at New York Magazine who came up with the idea of shooting tragic ingenue Lindsay Lohan as late great Hollywood sexpot Marilyn Monroe should get a raise. (The issue will sell like hotcakes and traffic on the site will surge.) Like it or not, the girl can act and putting her and photographer Bert Stern together to recreate Monroe's last nude photo session was genius. It works. And Lohan's got the right stuff. (I just hope she's not heading toward a similar fate.)

Actually, folks in the office were passing around a poll that asks: If you had to be stranded on a desert island with Britney Spears, Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan, who would you pick? To a person, everyone picked Lohan. Why? Messed up and badly parented as she may be, at least she has talent and a glimmer of intelligence to hang onto. The others are truly lost souls. (Thank God The Hottie and the Nottie tanked.)

More sexy nude photos on the jump. [Hat tip Gawker.]

Berlin Watch: Rookie Helmer Madonna Talks

Indiewire talks to Madonna about her film debut Filth & Wisdom in Berlin. Here's a clip:

indieWIRE SNEAK PEAK: Madonna's "Filth and Wisdom"
by indiewire

UPDATE: Madonna's reviews aren't so good.

Obit: R.I.P. Roy Scheider

Do we best remember Jaws? Blue Thunder? All That Jazz?

I never saw this commercial, below. [Hat tip Hollywood Elsewhere]

This guy was prodigious. Here's the NYT obit.

Oscar Watch: Nicholson Challenges Oscar Race

Jack Nicholson tells it like it is. That's why he's Jack.

NYT and EW go to the Oscars

Yes, it's Oscar season and time for the NYT Mag's Oscar issue, dedicated to breakthrough performances. And another set of gorgeous photos (scanned by the kind folks at Livejournal). Here's my fave: James McAvoy. (I hope Atonement does well at the BAFTAs tomorrow.) Here's Lynn Hirschberg's story.

[NYT photo by Ryan McGinley; EW photo by Justin Stephens]

I also loved Ken Tucker's EW cover piece, The Year of the Bad Boys, on the year's two great villains, Anton Chigurh and Daniel Plainview, played of course by Oscar contenders Javier Bardem and Daniel Day Lewis.

Vanity Fair Does Hitchcock

Vanity Fair's Hitchcock homage is great fun. The Psycho montage is right-on. As if we didn't already know, Marion Cotillard is game for anything.

And Emile Hirsch and James McAvoy are creepily handsome in black-and-white for Strangers on a Train.

Gwenyth Paltrow is very Grace Kelly, perfect for To Catch a Thief. And Naomi Watts, Keira Knightley, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Charlize Theron capture the period. But while their photos are gorgeous, Renee Zellweger and Jodie Foster seem too strong and modern to be Hitchcock women.

And as coolly suave as Paltrow's Iron Man co-star Robert Downey, Jr. is here (maybe he needed to shave the beard and trim the uptick in his hair), only George Clooney or Hugh Grant could come close to Cary Grant. (Or AMC's Jon Hamm?) It reminds us what a tall order that is. Seth Rogen makes a brilliant comic choice for the crop-duster sequence in North by Northwest.

Isn't it weird that Rear Window's Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansson are not looking out the window in their Rear Window shot?

[Hat Tip to lovehater]

Oscar Beauty Tips: The Horror!

Stars who plan to walk the red carpet are often in starvation mode at this time of year. I'll never forget how miserable and gaunt Jennifer Connelly looked when I saw her up close the year she won the Oscar for 2001's A Beautiful Mind.

Here's how the stars can deal with this lean and hungry look, according to this for-real email from environics-usa:

Celebrity's Filler "Secrets” Hide the Unhealthy Truth

As award season begins, celebrities start beauty preparations to be "red carpet ready.” For the appearance of a healthy, full, fresh face on a size 0 or less body, many celebrities turn to cosmetic facial fillers to add volume to drawn and gaunt faces. For celebrities who endure extreme diet and exercise to stay skinny, a once full, healthy face may become sunken, hollowed and less attractive. "Since the face is the first part of the body to reflect unhealthy eating habits and dieting, celebrities are requesting fillers to 'naturally' plump up sunken facial features,” says Rhoda Narins, MD, past president of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS) and dermasurgeon to several celebrity clients.

Dr. Narins explains that extreme weight loss thins the skin, while decreasing the amount of fatty tissue, making the face appear narrow, empty and aged. New filler products and techniques allow celebrities to turn a thin face into a full, healthy looking face with just a few treatments and minimal downtime. She describes the most popular fillers currently used by celebrities:

Oscar Classics: Best and Worst Actors

Edward Copeland has posted his annual Oscar survey, this time on best and worst Best Actor Oscar wins; I participated. The results are fascinating. Who best stands the test of time? Who gets punished for winning for the wrong, hopelessly dated movie? Lots of folks. Movies that seemed fine at the time don't look so good in the here and now.

Still top of the world? Jimmy Stewart in Phaldelphia Story, Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen, and character actors Alec Guinness, Anthony Hopkins, Paul Scofield, and F. Murray Abraham.

Paste's Art-House 100

I've never read Paste magazine, but nonetheless they're already publishing their third Annual Art Powerhouse 100, which "celebrates those who make the independent film industry possible." The list is pretty predictable. It would make more sense to do this a tad earlier, when the list might have some influence on the awards season. It now seems somewhat after the fact.

PASTE Magazine’s 3rd Annual Art House Powerhouse 100
Our Favorite Actors
Viggo Mortensen
Laura Linney
Forest Whitaker
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Naomi Watts
Cate Blanchett
Evan Rachel Wood
Natalie Portman
Don Cheadle
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Juliette Binoche
Daniel Day-Lewis
Josh Brolin
Christian Bale
Cillian Murphy
Parker Posey
Jack Black
Ryan Gosling
Nicole Kidman
Javier Bardem
Jake Gyllenhaal
Johnny Depp
Ellen Page
Casey Affleck
Emile Hirsch
Paul Dano
Jason Schwartzman

More Paste favorites on the jump:

Post-Sundance Indie-Glut Theory

Jonathan Dana, who has run indie companies (Atlantic Releasing and Triton) and produced movies as well as repping and selling and consulting, emailed me a smart theory about the surfeit of Sundance acquisition titles this year, many of which remain unsold at fest's end. Here it is:

The so-called "dumb-money" has started to hit the screens.

The indie market now is split into three basic sections. At the top are the studio specialty divisions and their functional equivalents. They have done pretty well for the most part, it turns out, driven in most cases by experienced hands, sophisticated in co-production, and with enough checks and balances to keep themselves on track, yet with enough independence to take some chances (with distribution assured) and deep enough pockets to shrug off the misses.

At the "bottom" are the "out-of-left-field" indies, always ready to surprise with new talent and enough passion to deliver 1000 newbies a year into the festival vortex. These are always longshots, and I think the batting average for these films has remained steady...occasionally one breaks through, like grass through concrete. No one expects more, and everyone relishes the surprise success of a "Once" or similar classic Sundance miracle. Kind of like the old days. And in the middle are the bigger indies made on spec, without distribution in advance.

There are several subcategories of these middle-ground pictures, and many are made by careful professionals looking to make their films with a minimum of interference and yet with a careful eye on the various sectors of the market that can lead to success, both critically and commercially. But into this arena has recently poured the oft-mentioned deluge of new money, generated from a variety of sources in amounts sufficient to slosh around loosely, connecting itself often to legitimately hungry agencies or producers, often well-meaning, but with a bias towards "getting the deal done" with fewer check and balances than the traditional route, and with standards different, perhaps lesser, than for the others playing in this pricier end of the pool.

Stars Impervious to B.O. Truth

The Onion's AV Club reveals the lousy track record of quite a few major stars.

Ledger Cause of Death Not Known

Here's an update on the Heath Ledger autopsy report. Warner Bros. is still trying to come to grips not only with his death, but how to proceed on finishing and marketing The Dark Knight (below). He was in the midst of filming Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (right). Ledger had starred in Gilliam's Brothers Grimm. UPDATE: Glenn Kenny's eulogy.

Heath Ledger Found Dead, Surrounded by Pills

Heath Ledger was found dead in his SoHo apartment, Tuesday, surrounded by pills. It may not be a suicide. He was 28.

NEW YORK (AP) — Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence in a possible drug-related death, police said. He was 28.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the Manhattan apartment believed to be his home. The housekeeper who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there found him dead at 3:26 p.m.

The Australian-born actor was an Oscar nominee for his role in "Brokeback Mountain" and has numerous other screen credits.

How horrible. Sad. Regrettable. Ledger was just moving into the height of his powers. His work in the trailer to Dark Knight looks creepy and good. His Oscar-nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain revealed a deep sadness that must have been inside him. It's a terrible waste of a major talent who should have had a long career ahead of him. He had broken up with Michelle Williams, with whom he had a daughter. I've always been fond of this paparazzi shot from happier days.

Golden Globes: Reactions

While George Clooney was in Rome and Denzel Washington was otherwise engaged, plenty of other Globe nominees, from John Travolta to James McAvoy, got on the horn with Variety this morning.

Here are their reactions.

GreenCine rounds up media response.

The Return of Pee-Wee Herman?

Paul Reubens talks about bringing back Pee-Wee Herman at MTV.com.

Sweeney and Charlie Q & As

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton talk to New York Magazine about the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. And Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman talk to Time about Charlie Wilson's War.

[Photos: Hoffman, Roberts and Hanks for Time; Depp and Burton for New York]

Grace is Gone: Cusack Talks

John Cusack charmed the Sneak Previews group Monday night. After having made more than 50 movies, he still remembers what Rob Reiner told him early on while they were shooting The Sure Thing. If you're worrying about this and that and the other, said Reiner, you're not doing your job. What's important is what happens in that small circle in front of the camera. Some directors like Reiner, said Cusack, create that quiet space where that focus and concentration can take place for the actor: Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen, Cameron Crowe.

Grace is Gone is a small movie shot for $3 million in 24 days that Cusack produced, working with 29-year-old rookie director Jim Strouse (who also wrote Lonesome Jim). Cusack based his muscle-bound performance on friends and family in Illinois. His inarticulate soldier wants to be in control of an ordered life but loses his wife in the Iraq War and has to tell his two young daughters---and puts it off as long as possible. He's clenched and tight, Cusack said. His unforgettable walk was a key to finding the character. He had to go to the chiropractor a lot while shooting. Cusack beamed with pride at the two first-time actresses they hired in the Chicago area to play the two girls. The crowd applauded them.

The Weinstein Co. scooped up the movie at Sundance. It was Harvey's idea to go to Eastwood for the score. Cusack, an admirer of Eastwood's music, was happy to ask him, having worked with him before on Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. He was surprised when Eastwood said yes.

My class liked the film, although its even-handed politics confused some who wanted a clearer statement of the film's POV. Clearly, Cusack wanted to show the impact of the Iraq War on a human scale, and hopes that the film will reach a wide swath of audiences, not just the Liberal choir. Resistance to the subject may prove hard to overcome. Cusack is moving and believable as a midwestern dad and soldier and could get some attention from SAG and Oscar members--but only if folks watch the movie, which was overlooked by the Indie Spirits.

Oscar Watch: The Savages' Jenkins and Linney

Seeing The Savages for the second time, I marveled at how Tamara Jenkins took painful material about ailing parents, competitive siblings and nursing homes and made it funny. I look forward to what this gifted writer-director does next. On second viewing, as good as Philip Seymour Hoffman is, I realized that it's Laura Linney's movie. (Hoffman will go after a best actor nod for Before the Devil Knows Your Dead.) If Angelina Jolie or Cate Blanchett falls out, Linney could be a dark horse replacement for best actress. She's always good, and she's due (she was nominated twice, for supporting for Kinsey and lead for You Can Count On Me). Philip Bosco also nails the silent and reactive role of the unsympathetic, demented dad. Here's the LAT piece on Bosco.

After last week's Variety screening (which was not packed), Linney raved about Jenkins' writing. Scripts and characters this rich were rare, she said. With a low-budget 30-day shoot like this, Linney said, rehearsals are a luxury: you have to be focused and hit all your marks. She had never worked with Hoffman before; they were well-matched.

Here's my column and blog post on Jenkins.

Depp Leads TiVo Movie Star Wishlists

Each month TiVo tracks its customers' wishlisted actors. Viewers can select the stars whose movies they always want to see. This month Johnny Depp took over as the service's top wishlisted movie star, replacing Clint Eastwood.

Here’s TiVo's top ten wish