The first official publicity images for Tim Burton’s rendition of “Alice in Wonderland” hit USA Today yesterday, giving you a good look at what to expect when you travel down the rabbit hole once again in March 2010.

The new version will have Alice venturing back to Wonderland 10 years after she left, not remembering anything about this strange and unusual place. It will feature some live action, some CG animation, some motion capture, and 3-D.

Johnny Depp will appear as the Mad Hatter. Helena Bonham Carter will be the Red Queen, and Anne Hathaway and her giant mouth will collaborate together to play the White Queen.

I know that typically any bit of Johnny Depp news gets the ladies pretty excited, but, if you are getting moist with delight over the creepy image of him as the Mad Hatter, then you’ve got problems… serious, serious problems.

Except something dark and creepy and scary, as Wonderland was always intended to be.

[USA Today]

Newsweek sat down with six of the actors on most everyone’s Oscar shortlist for their 13th annual Oscar Roundtable.

This year’s panel includes Brad Pitt (”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”), Anne Hathaway (”Rachel Getting Married”), Robert Downey Jr. (”Tropic Thunder”), Mickey Rourke (”The Wrestler”), Frank Langella (”Frost/Nixon”) and Sally Hawkins (”Happy-Go-Lucky”).

Here are a collection of videos and an excerpt of the interview which will be featured in the next issue of Newsweek.

NEWSWEEK: With the Internet, it’s becoming harder for actors to draw the line between public and private. Do any of you guys ever Google yourself?
Pitt: Dear God. No.

Never?
Pitt: Never. First of all, I don’t really know how to operate a computer.

Do you have a BlackBerry?
Pitt: Oh yeah, I have a BlackBerry.

Anne, what about you. Do you Google yourself?
Hathaway: No.

Langella: It’s not a good idea. It can be painful and it can be self-aggrandizing.

Hawkins: What do they say about don’t believe any of it?

Downey: Oh, I love all that s—-, personally. Sorry. I love just it. Because it’s a hoot. Some people overstate their support, like they know you. Other people are busy doing something else and just want to go on this chat site and say some despicable character assassination, which I honestly think they kind of nailed it. I do have that shortcoming. It’s really fun.

Pitt: This publicity machine is out of control. It’s everything we didn’t sign up for. There’s this whole other entity that you get sucked into. You have to go and sell your wares. It’s something I never made my peace with. Somehow you’re not supporting your film if you don’t get out on a show and talk about your personal life. It has nothing to do with why I do this.

Langella: I’m a dinosaur. I never had a publicist until this film, because I had to protect myself—the studio wanted me to do every interview and talk show. I think the greatest thing an actor has is mystery and danger. And you poor guys are being asked to give pieces of yourself. You must fight it every chance you get. The more they know about you personally, the less they believe in you on camera. You want to disappear.

Pitt: But I think it’s impossible to operate fully from that standpoint. David Fincher [director of "Benjamin Button"] has spent five years chiseling away at this thing. I want him to get his day. So there is a strange push and pull.

(more…)

• It made the news earlier this week when Anne Hathaway broke up with her Italian boyfriend. And good riddance! Raffaello Follieri has been arrested for lying to an investor, saying that he was the chief financial officer of the Vatican. This guy has been doing this sort of sideways sh*t for years. Amazing someone so seemingly beautiful (er, some people think so) and talented as Hathaway would fall for this guy’s crap. Anyhow, police say that because people believed his connections to the Vatican that he was able to purchase properties owned by the Catholic church as huge discounts.

• Paris Hilton is denying reports that she tried to buy a Yorkshire Terrier to use as a prop for a photoshoot she was headed to. Last week it was reported that the heiress strolled into a pet store and wanted to impulsively purchase the dog and was turned down – due to her reputation of owning too many animals and not caring for them properly. She responded to the rumors on her blog, “I read [that I was] walking by some puppies for sale, and demanding that I be given a Yorkie puppy to be an accessory for a photo shoot. I wasn’t looking for a new pet. I wasn’t even at a photo shoot that day. Puppies are not accessories or toys and I love my own pets dearly. I treat them as if they were my children.”
  Hmph. I have always figured this Blind-Item was about the dumb twat . .

• American Idol’s second season winner, Ruben Studdard obtained a marriage license Monday in Birmingham, Alabama.
  Studdard, 29, and girlfriend Surata Zuri McCants, 30, filled out paperwork at the Shelby County Probate Office just before noon on Monday and walked away with their license.
  An eyewitness said, “They looked really happy.”
  No word when the couple plan on marrying, their marriage license is valid for 30 days.

• DMX is one dumb dawg.
  He was arrested in Miami yesterday for driving without a valid driver’s license.
  The moron rapper was arrested last month as well, in Arizona, and was charged with driving with a suspended license and doing 114-mph in a 65-mph zone back in January.
  He obviously didn’t learn anything from it. Three days later he was arrested (also in Arizona) for animal cruelty and felony drug possession charges.

• Larry King’s wife Shawn Southwick King, 48, is currently in rehab for her addiction to painkillers.
  She is King’s sixth wife – the couple have been married for 10 years and have two children.
  A friend of King’s confirmed to Page Six, “Shawn is in rehab for medication issues related to her chronic migraine problem.”