For the second season in a row, The Good Wife is set to lose another main cast member. Last year, it was Josh Charles, who chose to leave the hit CBS series and who was written out when his character of Will Gardner was gunned down in a courtroom. Now, it’s Archie Panjabi. The Emmy winner, whose contract runs out at the end of The Good Wife Season 6 , will depart the drama in May in order anchor a pilot for 20th Century Fox Television that will film some time in the spring. The Good Wife showrunners Robert and Michelle King confirmed Panjabi’s departure in a joint statement. It reads: “Archie is an amazing actress who helped build Kalinda from the ground up as an enigmatic, powerful and sexy character. It’s been a pleasure to write for her, and we’ll be sad to see her go; but we still have her for the rest of season six, so let’s not exhaust our goodbyes yet. We look forward to meeting all the wonderful new characters Archie brings to the screen. “But either way, we’re keeping the boots.” Panjabi has starred as investigator Kalinda Sharma since The Good Wife pilot. Her role, however, has diminished over the course of the series, especially once her friendship with Alicia was permanently altered by the bombshell that Kalinda slept with Peter many years ago. In fact, Panjabi has not shared a scene with Julianna Margulies since Season 4. Still, she’ll be missed. You can watch The Good Wife online via TV Fanatic in order to relive your favorite Kalinda moments and in order to prepare for her farewell.
From 2005 to 2014, Robin Thicke was married to Paula Patton. During most of that time, Leonardo DiCaprio wasn’t fat , and headed up a crack team of A-list ladies’ men affectionately referred to as “the p-ssy posse.” These days, Leo has beefed up and he and Robin are both pushing 40, but that doesn’t mean the once and future King of the World can’t bust out his famous “Ladies?” smirk to help out a friend in need. As you’ve probably heard, Patton filed for divorce from Thicke last week despite his long, intensive campaign of groveling and begging her to take him back. Now that it’s officially over, Thicke decided celebrate by hitting the town with two of the biggest vagina magnets in Hollywood: Leo and Tom Hardy. “There were a lot of models there,” says a source. “Leo and Robin were being super flirtatious and talking to tons of girls. [Robin] was in great spirits. Everyone was dancing until 3 am.” Leo is newly single himself these days, having recently broken up with Toni Garrn , presumably after learning that she’s old enough to drink. Hardy is newly married and reportedly left the party early, but guests say Robin and Leo played the field enough for everyone. Of course, if Thicke is trying to make his ex jealous, he’s probably barking up the wrong tree. Paula is already living with her new boyfriend . Robin Thicke and Paula Patton: Happier Times 1. Paula Patton, Robin Thicke Paula Patton and husband Robin Thicke. They make a cute couple, wouldn’t you agree?
After several hours during which it was assumed to be a very competent fake, Warner Bros . has confirmed that the autographed photo originally posted this morning on Ain’t It Cool News is indeed our first glimpse of Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury Road . The photo, part of a signed set given to the crew by Hardy on the last day of filming — Fury Road wrapped on Monday — reveals little about the movie, aside from the slightly more modern look of Hardy’s take on the character, and the fact that Hardy is extremely handsome even when you factor for the post-apocalyptic wastes of Australia. Gone is Max’s trademark police-issue black leather jacket with a single oversized spaulder on the right shoulder. In its place is what appears to be a rough-cut leather jacket with a more contemporary military look. Obviously, it should be assumed that years have passed since we last saw Max and that he’s long since run out of black polish, but it gives Max a subtle update that suggests the apocalypse happened more recently than the later years of the cold war. It’s unwise to make predictions based on a single image, but to my eyes the most interesting thing about the picture is that you can kind of see a hint of the original plan for Mad Max 4. First conceived as an animated 3D film to be co-written and co-designed by cartoonist Brendan McCarthy, who’s known for his long run on Judge Dredd in the anthology comic 2000AD , Max’s uniform as seen here is definitely reminiscent of the kind of post-civilized militarism you see dripping from the pages of that book. As McCarthy is still credited as cowriter of the live-action Fury Road s cript, I look forward to seeing how much of his aesthetic vision made it into the finished film. Considering Fury Road is packed with Characters like Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa and Nathan Jones’ Rictus Erectus, my guess is ‘a lot. [ Ain’t It Cool News ] Follow Ross Lincoln on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
As rollicking and rough as a drive down a dirt road with no suspension, Lawless is a tale of three-bootlegging brothers from Prohibition-era Franklin County, Virginia, who are, in the words of one character, some “hard-ass crackers.” Directed by Australia’s John Hillcoat ( The Road ) and written by musician Nick Cave (who’s adapted Matt Bondurant’s historical novel The Wettest County in the World ), Lawless is, like their last collaboration The Proposition , a kind of remixed Western at heart. It’s a story in which the law and the outlaws are equally outsized and dangerous — and a world in which the fighting has nothing to do with keeping order and everything to do with displays of strength. “It is not the violence that sets men apart. It is the distance that he is prepared to go,” declares oldest brother Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy), the hardest boiled of them all. To say that Lawless (or The Proposition ) romanticizes violence isn’t quite right — every tommy-gun bullet wound and knife wound is sickeningly visceral, and when a character gets his throat cut the man doing the deed has to saw through resisting flesh. But the film does relish and find lyricism in these tribal philosopher psychopaths who use force with the measured anticipation of an oenophile savoring a sip of wine. The sheer appreciation Lawless has for its characters and its setting makes it a pleasure to settle into, even though the film can be carelessly formless and feel like a rough draft that was never sculpted into something more meaningful. As Jack Bondurant, the youngest of the three brothers and the one most eager to prove himself, Shia LaBeouf, is both the primary focus of the film and its narrator — an unfortunate thing, since he’s also the character we least want to spend time with. Forrest is so tough he’s developed a mythology around him, that even he might believe, about being invincible — and given the ordeal he survives in this film, there might be something to that. Middle sibling Howard (Jason Clarke) is huge and half-feral, especially when he’s on one of his benders. But Jack’s been kept on the outside of the family business, allowed only to be the driver as the brothers travel the county, dispensing corn whiskey. That changes when an act of aggression by two out-of-towners gives him the opportunity to make a deal with gangster Floyd Banner (a gleeful Gary Oldman) after almost dying at his hands. At the core of Lawless is the escalating conflict between the Bondurant brothers and a corrupt Chicago lawman named Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce) who’s coming down hard on the county to get protection money from its many moonshiners. But there are plenty of detours taken: Jack woos preacher’s daughter Bertha (Mia Wasikowska) and starts up his own stills with the disabled Cricket (Dane DeHaan). Forrest makes sparks with dancer-turned-waitress Maggie (Jessica Chastain). Lawless is really about the adventures of the Bondurants and their friends and foes during Prohibition, and the characters are so compelling it would really be enough to just spend time in their presence. Forrest in particular is a memorable contradiction: Aside from his flashes of savagery, Hardy maintains an almost grandfatherly air. Clad in cardigans and prone to muttering, he refuses to step down to anyone and yet, is utterly undone by Maggie’s arrival in his life. As Rakes, Pearce is almost too outsized for the film to contain him. With his blackened, immaculately pomaded hair, parted dramatically down the center, and his pale eyebrows, he looks like a cross between Crispin Glover and Voldemort. He wields his vague sexuality — “You’re a peach,” he croons to Jack before punching him in the face — like a threat, mincing in his flawless suit right before delivering a ruthless beating, then ceremoniously peeling off his blood-stained leather gloves. It’s a unique performance, albeit so mannered it almost rends the already accommodating fabric of the film. Factor in the prevalence of international actors in the cast and the unfocused nature of the narrative,and Lawless seems to take place in an impressionistic space rather than a historical one. It’s Charlie and Forrest that we want to see have a showdown, though it’s Jack who more often ends up in the former’s crosshairs. It’s not LaBeouf’s fault that his character is the flimsiest. The story keeps giving him foolish things to do to bring around more action, including accidentally leading the police to the family’s stills. His role as catalyst eventually becomes irritating because we don’t want the story to move along. The world that Lawless presents is so vivid and pleasing that we want to linger over the details. It’s a film that finds delicate beauty in the image of someone bleeding out in the snow, and turns a drunken, impulsive visit to church service into an overwhelming sensory experience. The appeal of Lawless is not the story it tells but rather the world that it creates. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
The Farrelly Brothers’ Three Stooges flick is pratfalling into theaters Friday, so naturally stars Will Sasso, Sean Hayes, and Chris Diamantopolous bounced into the ring Monday night on WWE Raw to bring Stooge awareness to the world of wrestling. ENTV has all the choice details and footage from the historic meeting of WWE and Larry, Curly, and Moe — for which Sasso-as-Curly donned full Hulkamania gear before getting chokeslammed by Kane. ( Kane, my new hero !) Well, at least this stunt was at least marginally less painful (for me, not so much for Curly) than that ill-advised medical spoof video for Stoogesta. Actually, it’s the single most satisfying bit of Three Stooges marketing material I’ve seen so far. Agree/disagree? [via ENTV ]
Oh…my… GOD , Becky — look at Catwoman ‘s butt. Ahem . In a new promo image from The Dark Knight Rises , Anne Hathaway poses as Catwoman and shows, as many salivating fanboys have already suggested, just why the Batman sequel might’ve earned that PG-13 for “sensuality.” But wait! Why is everyone talking about Catwoman’s butt and not Batman ‘s meticulously sculpted-but-jaunty rubberized codpiece? Equal opportunity for costumed cosplay ogling after the jump, thanks to two new promo images for the July tentpole. First, we’ll start with this suggestively perky, full-length look at Hathaway as Catwoman, unearthed today on the internetz (hat tip ComingSoon ): A mask and cat-ear goggles? Leather gloves over a bodysuit also made of leather, with thigh-high boots to boot? This is one layered lady. I bet she makes that squeaking leather sound when she walks. Now, maybe Catwoman’s using her butt as yet another deadly weapon. Or maybe when you wear giant stiletto shit-kicking heels like that, one’s rear lifts naturally (welcome to the world of woman secrets, fellas). Ok, fine. Take a good gander. Now, can we move on to…Batman’s bat-junk? Behold, from the current issue of EW : I don’t know about you, but this kind of overly structured superhero outfit feels excessive and a little exhausting to look at. I can’t picture anyone toiling away somewhere in the Bat-sweatshop making every little molded rubber part of Batman’s faux six-pack, though it is funny to imagine the rationale for such a design: He needs protection… for each pack ! Do you think Bruce Wayne toiled very long over the agonizing decision to go with the muted bronze of his utility belt? How does one fit oneself for the perfectly proportioned superhero codpiece? The above image comes from EW’s Summer Movie Preview issue, which was accompanied by various Chris Nolan non-spoiler quotes and this very interesting tidbit concerning baddie Bane , played by Tom Hardy , and his unusual voice: “It’s a risk, because we could be laughed at — or it could be very fresh and exciting,” says Hardy, adding that the voice he developed was influenced by many factors, including a desire to honor the comic book character’s brains and Caribbean heritage. “The audience mustn’t be too concerned about the mumbly voice,” says Hardy. “As the film progresses, I think you’ll be able to tune to its setting.” Aha! And so we kind of get an answer in the great Bane ethnicity debate: Hardy is seemingly playing the villain true to his Caribbean/Latin heritage as written in the comics, which hardly closes the book on the issue. The fact that Bane’s being played by a white guy could conceivably still be explained away in the film; the character’s comic book origins cite a British mercenary father and a local rebel mother, which seems to make Bane half-Latino, half-Caucasian. But time will tell. For now, we have butts and junk to stare at. [ ComingSoon , EW ]
Oh , Harvey : “We have a star in Tom Hardy who’s completely anonymous right now. If you go to a line at the ArcLight nobody would know who he is. He’s going to be a huge movie star by August.” [ LAT ]
This won’t come nearly close to matching the poetry witnessed throughout last week’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy premiere giveaway contest (or the tense, masterful symphony of the film itself, chock-full of your favorite British thesps and “Pillow lipped chameleons”), but: “Thanks to all who played/With odes to Tinker, Tailor …/Winners after the jump!”
What if Hollywood reformatted the plot of Mr. & Mrs. Smith from he-spy vs. she-spy to be he-spy vs. he-spy over the same she? Then you would have This Means War , the upcoming action comedy from McG which stars Tom Hardy (with his real accent!) and Chris Pine as two secret agents who go head-to-head after learning they are dating the same woman, played by Reese Witherspoon. Oh, and did I mention that This Means War also marks Chelsea Handler’s live action blockbuster debut?
Ladies, this is British actor Tom Hardy. If you’re a big movie fan, you’ve seen him before, in “Inception” and “RockNRolla.” And he is just one of many reasons to check out the new movie “Warrior.” The movie’s storyline is, of course the main reason. You’ve probably seen the previews and though: “Oh, how nice. A new fight movie for the fellas.” But “Warrior” is much more than that. In fact, the MMA fights, which are graphic and realistic as s***, are just the backdrop to one of the best plots we’ve seen in a while. The movie follows Tom Hardy as Tommy Conlon and his brother Branden (played by Joel Edgerton) as they train for an MMA tournament that will inevitably change their lives in some way shape or form. For Tommy, winning this tournament, which carries the biggest purse in MMA history, would mean fulfilling a promise to the fellow Marine who died in his arms. But in order to do it, he has to come to some kind of arrangement with his ex-drunk father (played by Nick Nolte). For Branden, winning this tournament means keeping a roof over his wife and daughters’ heads. But in order to do it, he has to manage to stay focused despite his long lost brother’s return and apparent reconciliation with the father that never did either of them right. So yeah, there’s a lot of fighting (which also means a lot of fine a** shirtless men), but Tommy and Branden and their continuing battle with their father Patty will have you near tears more than once. And if you’re still not convinced, remember you get an hour and some change’s worth of this guy. Check out a real from our recent “Warrior” screening in Atlanta. Warrior hits theaters nationwide next Friday, September 9 Wanna check it out this weekend? Visit WarriorSneakPreview.com to find out how.
