So for those of you who are anxiously awaiting your chance to see Sex and the City this weekend, here’s your sneak peek.

This review was published in this morning’s The New Yorker. Of course I’m not sure I agree with it or not, as I haven’t seen the film yet, but it’s well written and super snarky. Just up our alleys, sweethearts.

Article: Anthony Lane/The New Yorker
Illustration: David Hughes

Secrecy has clouded “Sex and the City” since it was first announced. When would the film appear? Who would find a husband? Would one of the main characters die? If so, would she commit suicide by self-pity (a constant threat), or would a crocodile escape from the Bronx Zoo and wreak a flesh-ripping revenge for all those handbags? As the release date neared, the paranoia thickened; at the screening I attended, we were asked not only to surrender our cell phones but to march through a beeping security gate, as if boarding a plane to Tel Aviv. There was even a full-body pat-down, by far the biggest turn-on of the night. Not a drop of the forthcoming plot had been leaked in advance, but I took a wild guess. “Apparently,” I said to the woman behind me in line, “some of the girls have problems with their men, break up for a while, and then get back together again.” “Oh, my God!” she cried. “How do you know?”

What followed was not strictly a movie. It was more like a TV show on steroids. The televised episodes, which ran from 1998 to 2004, lasted for no more than half an hour each. So, spare a thought for the director of the film, Michael Patrick King, who also wrote the screenplay. Faced with the flimsiest of concepts, he had to take it by both ends and pull until he stretched it out to two and a quarter hours. Two and a quarter! When Garbo made “Anna Karenina,” in 1935, she got happy, unhappy, loved, left, and under the train in less than a hundred minutes, so how the hell are her successors supposed to fill the time?

To be fair, there are four of them—banded together, like hormonal hobbits, and all obsessed with a ring. As the story begins, two are married already. First, there is Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), who has a job, a child, and not enough sex with her husband, Steve (David Eigenberg), perhaps because he reminds her of Radar, from “M*A*S*H.” Then comes Charlotte (Kristin Davis), who is blissfully wedded to—well, what is she wedded to, exactly? He goes by the name of Harry (Evan Handler), but he’s a ringer for Dr. Evil, from the “Austin Powers” franchise, with all the evil sucked away; what remains is fey and shiny-headed, smiling sweetly about something known only to himself. For a movie about the need for real men—lusty, loyal, and loaded—this unusual earthling is truly a most peculiar advertisement for the gender.

(more…)

Every May the Cannes Film Festival rolls around and celebrities, directors and industry insiders love to hop on a jet and fly to the French Riviera.

In the past, those who could not attend basically missed out on all the press opportunities, publicity and involvement of the prestigious festival. However, times have changed and thanks to Skype’s live video calling, those who stayed home can still get in on the action.

Via Skype video calling, those not physically in Cannes can be both seen and heard as they take part in discussions and interviews hosted at the renowned American Pavilion, the business and hospitality center for American media, filmmakers, celebrities and industry professionals working in Cannes. Skype also supplied the American Pavilion’s wireless cafe with internet equipment so that all visitors to the film festival could make free voice and video calls anywhere around the world.

Titanic’s James Cameron, as well as cinematographer Vince Pace, executive producer of the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour movie, will be among those unable to attend the event and will utilize the live video calling.

The 2008 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 14th -25th.

http://www.skype.com/

Last March I told you about the film Lindsay Lohan had reportedly signed on for about Charles Manson and his cult followers called, The Manson Girls.

Lohan was to be paid $75,000 for the role, extremely low for industry standards.  Well, as it turns out,  she won’t be starring in the film after all.  Why, you say?  Because nobody wants to work with her!

The film was set to start filming in Los Angeles in early July, and Lohan was to play Nancy Pitman, a surfer girl who was fascinated by Manson.  However, when casting for the film, agents couldn’t find a single actress who would share the bill with Lohan!  Even some of the  guys refused to work with her.

Ouch.  Kind of shows you where she is at in her career, and it’s not a good place..

So, in order to get more big name actors/actresses for the film, producers have booted the bitch from the movie!  Sorry about your luck, Lindzs.   You’re box-office poison!

The 2008 MTV Movie Awards will take place at Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City on June 1. Mark Burnett (Survivor) will be the be returning for a second year as executive producer of the show.

“I’m looking forward to incorporating the viewers more than ever before, because I consider the MTV Movie Awards to be the most relevant movie award show in America today,” Burnett said. “This show honors the movies that millions of young Americans go to see. We will again highlight the interactive culture that is young America.”

Fun? Yeah, sure. Most relevant? Don’t get too excited there, Mark.

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE
· Ellen Page- Juno
· Keira Knightley - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
· Katherine Heigl - Knocked Up
· Amy Adams- Enchanted
· Jessica Biel- I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry

BEST VILLAIN
· Johnny Depp- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
· Denzel Washington- American Gangster
· Angelina Jolie- Beowulf
· Topher Grace- Spider-Man 3
· Javier Bardem- No Country For Old Men

BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE
· Johnny Depp- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
· Adam Sandler- I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
· Jonah Hill- Superbad
· Seth Rogen- Knocked Up
· Amy Adams- Enchanted

BEST FIGHT
· Matt Damon vs. Joey Ansah- The Bourne Ultimatum
· Tobey Maguire vs. James Franco- Spider-Man 3
· Hayden Christensen vs. Jamie Bell- Jumper
· Sean Faris vs. Cam Gigandet- Never Back Down
· Chris Tucker & Jackie Chan vs. Sun Ming Ming- Rush Hour 3
· Alien vs. Predator- Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem

BEST KISS
· Shia LaBeouf and Sarah Roemer- Disturbia
· Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey- Enchanted
· Daniel Radcliffe and Katie Leung- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
· Ellen Page and Michael Cera- Juno
· Briana Evigan and Robert Hoffman- Step Up 2 The Streets

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
· Zac Efron- Hairspray
· Seth Rogen- Knocked Up
· Jonah Hill- Superbad
· Michael Cera- Superbad
· Chris Brown- This Christmas
· Nikki Blonsky- Hairspray
· Megan Fox- Transformers
· Christopher Mintz-Plasse- Superbad

BEST SUMMER MOVIE SO FAR
· Iron Man
· Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
· Sex and the City: The Movie
· Speed Racer
· The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian

“I never expected to be paid what Sarah was being paid. But I felt that the offer was not worthy of what the three of us had contributed. And I spoke up about it. I feel like I stuck my neck out. I fought. I don’t ever want to be on a set where I feel undervalued.”

- Kim Cattrall defends herself for holding out for more money before agreeing to shoot the new Sex and the City movie.