It’s a good week to be Kristen Bell. First, fans helped blow up Kickstarter and assured that a Veronica Mars movie would be released some time in 2014. And then today… the actress gave birth! Fiance Dax Shepard Tweeted the excited news just a few moments ago, telling the world: “Lincoln Bell Shepard is here. She has mom’s beauty and dad’s obsession with breasts. Hooray!” The House of Lies star and Parenthood announced they were expecting last November. They have been engaged since 2009 and this is the first child for both. We have a feeling she will like sloths .
Roland Emmerich likes the Air Jordans scene in White House Down . As you may have heard, Emmerich and the leading men of his movie, Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum , gave moviegoers in New York and London a sneak peek of about eight minutes of footage from their Washington-under-siege movie on Tuesday, and, at the risk of sounding like Chance the Gardener, I had the unexpected opportunity of watching the director watch his handiwork from the audience. Emmerich and Foxx appeared before a hyped-up crowd at a Regal cineplex in Manhattan’s Union Square and were joined via satellite by Tatum, who was at a screening in London. Audiences in both locations were first shown the trailer for White House Down (posted below), then Good Morning America ‘s Sam Champion asked a lot of how-did-it-feel-type questions of the trio and their respective roles. Tatum plays John Cale — screenwriter James Vanderbilt must be a Velvet Underground fan — a cop who is on a tour of the White House with his daughter when it is attacked during a coup attempt, and President James Sawyer, portrayed by Foxx, is taken hostage. The two men team up to battle the paramilitary forces — homegrown, based on Emmerich’s comments — that are attempting to take control of the country and, on a more human scale, to rescue Cale’s daughter. After Emmerich admitted to some reservations about showing an extended look at his work-in-progress, the lights went down a second time and the crowd was treated to approximately eight minutes of footage that better established Tatum and Foxx’s characters. Prior to the White House tour, Cale is shown apologizing to his daughter for not being a better dad and lifting her spirits by telling her about the White House tour they’re going to take right after his interview for a plum Secret Service gig. That interview which is conducted by a tough-talking Maggie Gyllenhaal, goes terribly, and, based on the footage shown, implausibly. Gyllenhaal is shown quoting evaluations by Cale’s law-enforcement superiors and there are enough negative ones that, given that the job involves protecting the president, it’s unlikely the interview would have even been scheduled. But things picked up considerably from there. Just before all hell broke loose, a White House tour guide refers to the part of the White House “that got blown up in Independence Day ,” which the crowd loved. That was followed by extended footage of another national monument, the Capitol Building being destroyed in spectacular fashion. (Trust me, it’s more memorable than the short version you see in the trailer.) By then, Emmerich had left his seat next to Foxx at the front of the theater and plopped down on the floor in the middle of the theater next to yours truly — there were no seats to be had at this point — presumably to watch the footage from the crowd’s perspective. As the Capitol Building imploded, I watched Emmerich out of the corner of my eye to see if the German filmmaker was looking impressed with himself or particularly gleeful at the cinematic destruction of an iconic American image. He wasn’t. He watched the footage intently but without any evident emotion. The scene that got an obvious rise out of Emmerich was one in which, after Cale and Sawyer make their way to the president’s living quarters, the Commander-in-Chief breaks out a pair of sweet Air Jordans. The director laughed out loud at that scene, and also appeared to enjoy another bit of comic relief later in the picture where Foxx kicks a terrorist who’s grabbing at his feet and says, “Get your hands off my Jordans!” (Foxx told the crowd that he was not playing a fictional version of Barack Obama, but that he did do “Obama-type things” in the movie, and the Jordans certainly seemed to reference our actual president’s love of basketball.) Eight minutes of footage does not a movie make, but if Emmerich can maintain the level of humor, action and drama that his sneak peek demonstrated, White House Down could potentially dwarf the $30.5 million opening weekend that Olympus Has Fallen notched and become another Independence Day-sized hit for Emmerich. At the very least, it will earn him the distinction of the filmmaker who blew up by blowing up the White House — twice. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
After a six-second ‘Tweaser’ anda 20-second preview of The Wolverine , Marvel unleashed almost four-and-a-half minutes of adamantium goodness in the form of two trailers on Wednesday, and it sets up at least part of the storyline for Hugh Jackman’s latest outing as the cigar-smoking mutant. It looks like a scientist whom Wolvie saved from what looks like a nuclear explosion wants to repay the favor: The mutant gave him life, so Mr. Big Brain wants to give Wolverine the ability to die by taking away his regenerative powers. Or is it all a diabolical trick? That beautiful blond assistant in the lab coat is Svetlana Khodchenkova , who plays the villain Viper in the movie. Below are both the domestic and international trailer. The latter does a much better job of telling the story. You might want to watch that one first. In this context, The Wolverine reminds me of one of the themes that Anne Rice grappled with in her Interview with the Vampire novels: Is immortality as alluring as it seems? ‘The Wolverine’ Trailer (Domestic) : A Life Saved The International Trailer Reveals More Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The Host author Stephenie Meyer is a sci-fi grrrl. Now that the Twilight creator is transitioning from vampires and werewolves to aliens, I asked her what it was like to work in the male-dominated science-fiction genre. “I grew up reading science fiction!” she told me. “There are many women out there reading science fiction and enjoying it — it’s our genre too!” I also asked why her Twilight novels seemed to promote abstinence when the key characters in The Host, Melanie and Jared, have plenty of sex before marriage. Turns out, Twilight was never about abstinence! “In Twilight , there was a character who was born in the early 1900s and had a different value set. And I really enjoyed taking this anachronistic character, shoving him into modern life and having him stay who he is and making everyone else bend.” Meyer’s unique look at relationships has earned her many fans, including Diane Kruger who plays the main villain in The Host : “I love Twilight , I have to say. I was totally Team Edward !” the actress told me. But beyond Meyer’s pretty boys, Kruger feels the author looks out for women most of all. “That’s what I like about Stephenie Meyer. I think it’s rare to have not just a female centered movie but to have two female protagonists in a film,” a reference to Melanie and the alien “Soul”, Wanda , who shares her body. “That’s really rare,” Kruger adds. Max Irons and Jake Abel are Meyer’s pretty boys this time around, and Irons points out that his co-star is the one who has to depict “interspecies love” since Abel falls in love with an alien. Abel defends their relationship though, saying his character falls in love with alien Wanda because “there’s a sense of softness to her and he’s in a group of people that have been really hardened by a struggle to survive.” Check out my full interviews below: Follow Grace Randolph on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Lindsay Lohan’s first stop after accepting a plea deal in which she admitted lying to police and agreed to go to an in-patient rehab facility for 90 days? Nightclubs. Obviously. LiLo’s SUV pulled up to the AV Club, where she was spotted covering her face with a blanket as celebrity gossip photographers clamored to see her. At that point, the 26-year-old abruptly bounced. It’s unclear why, but she left . Never went in. The decision to skip the club was definitely the best move, but the fact that she was even there makes you question what the heck she’s thinking. Going for a last hurrah? Not a good sign that she’s taking this at all seriously, even as she dodged a bullet and avoided jail by the skin of her teeth. While rehab sure beats jail , LiLo clearly has no use for it, in her own mind. She is adamant she doesn’t even have a problem … amazing, but true. Lohan will soon enter 90 days of lockdown rehab, which means she’s not going anywhere unless there’s a death in the family member or a medical necessity. Will she get her head in the game or just go through the motions? Only time will tell, but at the moment, it looks like history could well repeat itself. You tell us: Can LiLo get/stay clean? Yes, she’s totally learned her lesson by now! No, she’s in denial, spineless, weak and surrounded by enablers! View Poll »
Keith Olbermann’s legal war with Current TV has reportedly ended. The perennially perturbed personality filed a $50 million lawsuit upon his termination from Current one year ago. He will indeed receive a ” significant payout .” The exact amount will not be known until it’s leaked in a few hours. In his legal complaint, Olbermann accused Current co-founders Joel Hyatt and Al Gore of being “dilettantes portraying entertainment executives.” He claimed they breached his contract in all sorts of ways, forced him to work in substandard conditions and even sought to smear him in the press. The alleged dilettantes in question can afford to pay whatever it takes to make the case go away, having sold Current to Al Jazeera for $500 million. The network is being overhauled and will become Al Jazeera America. Seriously. Olbermann’s also working on a reinvention, again. The former ESPN and MSNBC mainstay is reportedly looking for work, but no one’s bitten since October. Wonder why.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck is standing up for Gwyneth Paltrow. By coming down hard on gluten. The View co-hosts got into a debate this morning over Paltrow’s upcoming book, ” It’s All Good ,” in which the actress offers up a slew of carb-free and gluten-free recipes . “I do believe that there is a growing number of people with gluten intolerance, not just celiac disease, like myself,” said Hasslebeck. “I do think it causes inflammation in the body, whether you are celiac or gluten intolerant or not.” The former Survivor contestant herself, in fact, has penned a pair of gluten-free cook books. Hasselbeck – who is NOT leaving The View – added that she noticed a significant improvement in her overall health since she cut this item out of her diet. “I’ve been on the diet for 10 years,” she said. “I’ve never felt better.” But even more than any disdain for gluten, Hasselbeck wanted to make a clear point regarding Paltrow and her beliefs: “She could do whatever the heck she wants. She’s a mom, those are her kids, do what you want.”
Lena Dunham is featured in this month’s Playboy – and here’s some irony for you: The actress, so often naked on HBO’s Girls , is actually clothed within the pages of the world’s most famous men’s magazine. Asked about her full-shaped figure, Dunham says she’s actually grateful for her appearance. Why does she prefer it over that of Miranda Kerr or Alessandra Ambrosio? “I don’t want to go through life wondering if people are talking to me because I have a big rack,” says the actress/writer. “Not being the babest person in the world creates a nice barrier. The people who talk to you are the people who are interested in you.” Does Dunham see any appeal to being hot? “I probably would want to see if I could get free food at restaurants,” she says. The Girls Season 2 finale airs this Sunday night on HBO.
Though smarter than your average dramedy, Paul Weitz’s forced Admission faces some major identity issues. Tina Fey plays a discombobulated Princeton admissions officer who must confront the limits of her morals when she learns that a potential Princeton applicant might be the son she gave up for adoption. What appears on paper to be an ideal three-dimensional, morally complex role for the quick-witted comedienne backfires in practice, relying on Fey to be funny in a movie that works better serious. Despite offering consolation to the world’s many Ivy League rejects that the gatekeepers sometimes make mistakes, low entrance levels await. Clearly, what Weitz wanted was to recapture some of Fey’s Baby Mama mojo (it earned a surprise $60 million, after all), relying on the actress to bring the same vulnerable uncertainty to another harried working-woman role. But that film was conceived as a traditional laffer, whereas Admission is based on Jean Hanff Korelitz’s more nuanced novel, in which Fey’s seemingly straightlaced character is thrown for a loop by a highly unusual applicant. While the book treats this wrinkle as its big surprise, the more plot-driven adaptation serves it up as a central concept, positioning Fey’s Portia Nathan as an increasingly screwball character struggling (and mostly failing) to maintain her professional ethics amid a messy personal crisis. Through a series of clunky, on-the-nose character-development scenes, the pic establishes Portia’s life — or, more accurately, her current state of denial: She’s fallen into a predictable routine with her tweedy lit-professor b.f. ( Michael Sheen ), her fastidiously clean workspace and her general intolerance of kids. Instead of indulging auds’ natural curiosity with a look inside the closed-door world of college admissions, the pic leaves Fey and her co-stars to play dress-up in a wood-paneled office where Wallace Shawn amiably poses as the dean of admissions and everybody carries around orange folders like so many hyper-efficient Oompa Loompas. The impression essentially favors Princeton as it reveals the fair, yet relatively inflexible process by which Portia and rival Corinne (Gloria Reuben) evaluate high school seniors’ essays and extracurriculars. Each folder conjures a fresh, optimistic-looking teen at the edge of the reader’s desk, the majority of whom then plummet through an invisible trapdoor after failing to meet the high threshold. With Portia and Corinne competing for a promotion, Portia throws herself into her usual visits to prospective students, giving the same canned speech at every stop until she arrives at New Quest, a newly accredited — and highly experimental — school overseen by fellow Dartmouth grad John Pressman ( Paul Rudd ). Implausibly, John remembers the day and hour Portia gave her baby up for adoption and has somehow managed to match it to his star pupil, a freakishly smart but terribly awkward teen named Jeremiah (Nat Wolff). But Pressman’s timing in revealing the information couldn’t be worse: Not only is this a sensitive time at work, but Portia’s b.f. is searching for an opportunity to break things off, and her long-frazzled relationship with her mother ( Lily Tomlin ) is coming to a boil, all of which drives Portia to behave as only movie characters do, sobbing, smooching and puking at the most inopportune moments. Other New Quest students question the value of what they see as the sexist, racist, homophobic institution Portia represents, but Jeremiah wants to attend Princeton. Problem is, he lacks the grades to get in. Watching the final admissions process, one wants to believe the officers become this invested in everyone they consider. And yet Portia goes to extremes to boost Jeremiah’s chances, manipulating co-workers and even breaking in to alter his file. The comedy feels forced as Fey works overtime to insert unnecessary zingers at the tail of every scene. If the cast weren’t so endearing, her actions could easily sour an audience on the whole experience, and Admission digs itself a hole only an ensemble this appealing can escape. Tomlin in particular enlivens her limited screentime as an irrepressible free spirit — a woman who truly understands the meaning of acceptance. Follow Movieline on Twitter .
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