Looks like VH1 will be missing one thirsty a$$ reality slore from it’s programming Atlanta Falcons running back Michael Turner and his baby mama, Rasheeda Walker, recently reached an agreement in a custody battle over their second child. Via TMZ reports : According to the agreement, Michael will get to see his new son significantly during the off-season — from January to August — and on his bye weeks during the season. Turner also agreed to pay Rasheeda $6,000 a month. But the best part — according to the docs, “The parties agree that it is not in the best interest of either of the children to appear on any reality television show or program, absent mutual consent” … meaning neither party wants the other to exploit the child on a reality show without the other’s prior approval. It’s a pretty amicable conclusion — considering Rasheeda and Turner’s current GF got into a nasty golf club-wielding brawl last month … in front of the NFL star’s Georgia mansion. So, he probably believes $72k a year is a small price to pay to keep his name out of the media spotlight. Most important part of the agreement isn’t the money or the reality show ban, but the visitation because that means more to a child than anything else. More On Bossip! Celebrity Seeds: T.I. And Tiny Give Their Lil “OMG Girl” Zonnique A Star Studded Sweet Sixteen Photoshop Magic: The Most Ridiculously Doctored Kardashian Pictures Of All Time Guess Which Jordan Rockin’ Rapper Got The Footsy Game Goin’ Under The Table This Weekend? “Hunger Games” Kills It At The Box Office But Rabid Fans Expose Their Racism On Twitter By Hating On Rue And Thresh
Actor was arrested in Washington, D.C., outside the Sudanese embassy. By Jocelyn Vena George Clooney is arrested at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington on Friday Photo: Colin Drummond/ Splash News George Clooney was arrested on Friday (March 16) in Washington, D.C., after participating in a protest. The Oscar nominee was taken into custody outside the Sudanese embassy. According to MSNBC , the group was protesting Sudan’s blockage of food and aid from entering the Nuba Mountains and aimed to bring attention to the treatment of the people in that area of Sudan. His father, journalist Nick Clooney, was also arrested, according to MSNBC, as well as Martin Luther King III, NAACP President Ben Jealous, Rep. Jim McGovern and Rep. Jim Moran and former Rep. Tom Andrews. Clooney and the other protesters knew that, because the embassy is private property, they would be arrested if they refused to move. MSNBC reports that the protesters were warned three times before police moved in. The group reportedly held a sign that read, “Sudan: Stop Weapons of Mass Starvation.” He told the large crowd at the protest, “We need immediate humanitarian aid into Sudan before it becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.” He asked “the [Sudanese] government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children. Stop raping them, and stop starving them.” According to People.com , the group was then taken to a Secret Service van. “He’s being charged currently with disorderly crossing of a police line, which is a misdemeanor and he will be transported to the second district of the Metropolitan Police Department for processing,” Max Milien, spokesman for the Secret Service, told the site, noting that Clooney was being cooperative. “They were protesting the violence committed by the government of Sudan on its own innocent men, women and children,” Clooney’s rep said in a statement. “They were demanding they allow humanitarian aid into the country before it becomes the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.” The actor has been trying to bring change to the area, even meeting with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Secretary Hillary Clinton and President Obama in the Oval Office on Thursday. One day before, he attended the White House state dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron. He is expected to appear on “Hardball with Chris Matthews” on Friday.
Our columnist defends Tim Burton’s comedic re-imagining of the vampire soap. By John Mitchell Johnny Depp in “Dark Shadows” Photo: Warner Bros The first trailer for Tim Burton’s big-screen adaptation of the late-’60s/ early-’70s vampire soap opera “Dark Shadows” dropped Thursday, and it has sharply divided fans. In one corner are “Shadows” purists, who seem none too pleased with the director’s decision to re-imagine the campy but deadly serious soap as a gonzo comedy. In the other corner are more casual fans and Burton enthusiasts, who are seeing shades of “Beetlejuice” and “Edward Scissorhands” and loving it. I’m on the record as falling in the latter category. I grew up on reruns of the original soap (yeah, I was a weird kid) and also loved NBC’s short-lived prime-time reboot in the early ’90s. If the original series was a true-to-genre soap opera (just, you know, with a heavier lean on the supernatural), the ’90s take was “Melrose Place”-meets-“Twin Peaks” but with fangs. The problem is, a straight take on the original (which is where Burton’s loyalties lie — he’s never given any indication he cares about the TV reboot) wouldn’t fly with today’s sophisticated film audience, and playing to the ’90s retread would have resulted in a film that would have a lot in common with Neil Jordan’s “Interview With the Vampire.” And while that’s certainly not a bad thing — “Interview” is a killer vampire flick — it has nothing to do with Tim Burton. For its ’90s return, “Shadows” turned up the sex factor; it was a sudsy drama with a chest-baring Ben Cross as Barnabas, Angelique busting out of her corset and a plot that focused heavily on Barnabas’ attempts to cure his vampirism so he could bring the sexytimes with Victoria Winters, whom he suspected may have been the reincarnation of Josette DuPres, the love of his mortal life back in the late 18th century. That’s all well and good, and a big-screen treatment of that might have even played well. But that was never going to happen with Burton at the helm; it’s not his game. The dark and spooky aesthetic he created for films like “Sleepy Hollow” and “Sweeney Todd” had the look fans of the series were after, and I think that — mixed with Burton’s fanboy enthusiasm for the project — is why purists were so psyched that he was directing. But Burton doesn’t really do romance, particularly not lusty, forbidden love stories. ‘Dark Shadows’ Trailer: Love It Or Hate It? (Poll) There are several directors who do, and who do it well, including “Shadows” star Michelle Pfeiffer’s frequent collaborator Stephen Frears (“Dangerous Liaisons,” “Cheri,” “Mary Reilly”) and “Interview” director Jordan (“The End of the Affair,” “The Crying Game”). Joe Wright (“Atonement,” “Pride and Prejudice,” the upcoming “Anna Karenina”) has practically built his career on the stuff. But I suspect they wouldn’t have been able to grasp the weirdo wonderment that makes “Shadows” so special to fans. It’s based on a soap, after all, and is so over-the-top that to direct it as a straight romantic vampire drama might have meant significant alterations to the story to “normalize” it. It would have had to be boiled down to the basics. That still might have made for a good film, but (real talk) it also might have meant that something really dynamic would be translated into a highbrow, slightly more horror-leaning version of “Twilight.” And, um, no one wants that. On the flip side, if Burton had kept the deliberately exaggerated and theatrical style of the original without acknowledging the comedy inherent in going so over-the-top (this is the literal definition of “camp”), it would have been unwatchably ridiculous. Soaps are absurd but play their ridiculousness with the utmost seriousness. It’s something we all know and accept about them, but it’s not something that would work, not even for a second, on the big screen — particularly in a big-budget film starring two three-time Oscar nominees (Johnny Depp and Pfeiffer), the twice-nominated Helena Bonham Carter and “Little Children” nominee Jackie Earle Haley. The only thing left for Burton to do was turn the volume up even higher and trust his talented actors to work their magic with what better be a damn clever script. It’s hard to embrace absurdity without it coming across as farce, but you know who is a master of doing exactly that? Tim Burton. He did it in “Beetlejuice” and “Edward Scissorhands.” He even brought some genuine emotion to it with the more delicate “Ed Wood.” It’s been a while since Burton worked this particular magic, but after seeing the “Shadows” trailer I’m feeling like he may have done it again. What did you think of the “Dark Shadows” trailer? Let us know in the comments below and tweet me at @JohnMitchell83 with your thoughts and suggestions for future columns! Check out everything we’ve got on “Dark Shadows.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
You have to admire the chutzpah, if not necessarily the filmmaking skills, of Jay and Mark Duplass, the duo behind the stay-at-home-son comedy-drama Jeff, Who Lives at Home . With their 2005 debut, The Puffy Chair , the Duplass brothers took an uninteresting story fleshed out with lackadaisical dialogue and, using barely rudimentary camera skills, fashioned a noodly tale about love, life and relationships. It’s easier, maybe, to admire the Duplasses’ boldness more than the actual product, but you have to say this much for them: They sure do keep moving. Jeff, Who Lives at Home is the duo’s fourth feature, and if their sense of craftsmanship hasn’t grown by leaps and bounds in the past seven years, it has surely improved. Which raises the question: At what point do we stop applauding the Duplass brothers for their gumption and stick-to-itiveness and admit that, maybe, their storytelling just isn’t so hot? Or that their characters sometimes seem more like groovy-cute constructs than believable people? For example, the protagonist of Jeff, Who Lives at Home , played by Jason Segal, believes that everything and everyone in the universe is interconnected. Why? Because he keeps watching M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs over and over again. In the movie’s prologue, we hear him in voiceover as he writes in his diary, “It keeps getting better every time I see it.” Even if the movie’s title didn’t give it all away, you could probably guess that’s a setup for a story about a schleppy 30-ish guy who still lives at home with his mother (in this case, Susan Sarandon) but who will somehow find his purpose in life – his own sense of interconnectedness – during the course of the movie. And you’d be right. The whole conceit feels a little too manicured, too neat, even though the filmmaking around it is still pretty Duplassy – in other words, its earmarks are lots of (somewhat) shaky handheld camera moves and a decidedly uncinematic sense of composition. But there is, at least, a story here, and Jeff, Who Lives at Home suggests that the Duplass brothers really do want their movies to be better and better. Like the duo’s last movie, the 2010 Cyrus , Jeff deals with an adult son who isn’t, for vague yet understandable reasons, quite equipped to live in the real world. Sarandon’s Sharon, hoping to give him at least some purpose in life, just wants him to help out a little around the house – she sends him on a mission to buy some wood glue to repair a cupboard door’s broken slat. Jeff heads out to the store via bus, gazing out the window in a state of semi-wonder as it makes its way past some of the nondescript gas stations and fast-food eateries of Baton Rouge. He never makes it to the store: A mishap surrounding his certainty that the name “Kevin” is somehow of cosmic significance leads him into contact with his estranged brother, Pat (Ed Helms), whose wife, Linda (Judy Greer), has just given him the gate for being a fiscally irresponsible loser. (She seems to be right.) Jeff and Pat forge a tentative reconnection, reminiscing about their dead father and gradually – perhaps too gradually – wending their way toward a climax that gives real meaning to their lives. There’s some genuine sweetness in this story: Jeff may be a clueless galoot who overthinks everything, but he’s really searching for something here, and as Segel plays him, he does have a degree of lumpy charm. But even though much of the dialogue in Jeff is improvised, there’s still something deeply calculated about the picture: It has the distinction of feeling unshaped and sloppy and at the same time meticulously planned out in terms of what it’s asking us to feel. The picture demands that we feel protective of Jeff, and so we do. But we’re also supposed to find it gratifying when Jeff learns that the signs he’s learned to read by watching Signs really are signs. How you feel about the ending of Jeff, Who Lives at Home will depend on your capacity for cosmic delight, but I will say that one man’s date with destiny is just another man’s handy plot device. still, there’s one area in which the Duplasses’ instincts serve them well: The movie features a subplot in which Sharon learns she has a secret admirer at work. She’s pleased and flattered, but she has no clue who it is, and she shares her flutter of confusion with her co-worker and friend, Carol (played, with marvelous suppleness and grace, by Rae Dawn Chong). Everything Sarandon does here feels believable and natural — that’s in addition to the fact that she looks lovely, like a woman who’s happy to be living in her own skin instead of trying to shape it into a mask. She’s the kind of actress who can do a lot with a little, and it’s a pleasure to watch the way small gradations of feeling play across her face like the shifting sunlight on a half-cloudy, half-bright day. Her scenes with Chong (whom the Duplass brothers, God love them, also cast in Cyrus ) are superb, and they suggest that the Duplasses’ improvisational MO can work beautifully with the right kind of actors. Like the Duplass brother’s other movies, Jeff, Who Lives at Home worships at the altar of the small moment, without recognizing that some moments are just, well, small. But occasionally, the Duplasses hold their cracked magnifying glass up to something very real. And oddly enough, it’s the crack that makes all the difference. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Everyone is familiar with that special breed of screen performer whose names are associated with not only longevity, but also ubiquity. Gene Hackman reigned among this class for much of the last few decades, his title soon overtaken by Michael Caine, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicolas Cage and others who’ve shown a willingness to earn paychecks in everything from Oscar bait to glorified grindhouse fare. Yet another thespian exceeds them all in output, not only with an impressive slate of completed work but also a calendar-busting array of upcoming projects. Just who is the most in-demand player in Hollywood? It might come as a surprise, but by all appearances Danny Trejo holds that title. The character actor has achieved something close to omnipresence in recent years; so saturated are movies with Trejo’s image that you can almost overlook his appearance while watching one of his many films. Much of this has to do with the fact that, despite the former boxer and ex-con’s dependable ruffian visage, he has assembled an impressively varied resume relying on both gritty roles in direct-to-rental genre pulp and such diverse mainstream titles as The Muppets , A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas , and Spy Kids 4D — to say nothing of his frequent television work. And with news this week of Trejo and director Robert Rodriguez’s Machete Kills shooting next month, the actor’s profile will only broaden from here. Using the comprehensive (if admittedly unreliable) IMDB Pro as a launching pad, I went about separating the real Trejo wheat from the development chaff for one of the most robust slates anyone has achieved in a generation: COMPLETED Sushi Girl (the role of Schlomo): A man is released from jail after six years and has a celebratory sushi dinner with the rest of crew, eating sushi off of a naked girl who is supposed to be oblivious as they try to reclaim their loot. Haunted High (The Janitor): A New England private academy finds itself with a demonic headmaster, while the janitor is also the enforcement guardian of the school. (SyFy original movie) Counterpunch (Manny Navarro): A bipolar boxer from Miami tries to win the Golden Gloves championship, with the help of his counselor. Amelia’s 25th (Don Javier): A young actress has a midlife crisis the day she turns twenty five in Los Angeles. IN THE CAN/POST-PRODUCTION Bro’ (Gilbert): A college student gets involved in the wild partying lifestyle of a professional motocross racer. Skinny Dip (El Tigre): A grindhouse offering about a young woman (played by Sasha Grey) who, following the death of her boyfriend, dresses as a cop and takes on the role of a vigilante. The Cloth (Father Connely): Centering on a secret order of the Catholic Church formed to deal with a rise in demonic possessions. Pendejo (Pedro): A rich playboy is forced by his father into the lowest position of a company he technically owns. Alcatraz Prison Escape: Deathbed Confession (Narrator): The true story of what happened to the only escapees from Alcatraz prison. Strike One (Manny Garcia): A young boy in a gang-infested neighborhood has a former-gang-member uncle as a role model. The Insomniac (Jairo Torres): Following a break-in at his home a man develops insomnia and comes to learn the people he knows cannot be trusted. Death Race: Inferno (Goldberg): Trejo reprises his role from the first sequel of the remake. And that’s not all: Add to this glut an array of other “announced” projects in various stages of development, and Trejo may ultimately be involved with nearly two dozen titles over the next 12 months. Among those titles with the actor attached — but which remain unconfirmed and/or unproduced as of this writing — include Five Thirteen , Dead in Tombstone , Left Turn , Human Factor , Badass , Vengeance , Tarantula and Raggedy Anne . And of course there’s Machete Kills , shooting in April. At that rate Trejo could turn down half his roles and Burbank would experience a barista shortage from the bulk of actors who finally are able to find work. Brad Slager has written about movies and entertainment for Film Threat, Mediaite, and is a columnist at CHUD.com . His less insightful impressions on entertainment can be found on Twitter .
Gary Ross may have been an unexpected choice to direct The Hunger Games , but his quest for the gig was no less obsessive than the fervor of the novels’ fans; it took him exec-stalking across the Atlantic, involved elaborate custom-made storyboards, and inspired him to make a video of actual Hunger Games fans and their love for Suzanne Collins’s sci-fi series. (Besides, who else could’ve brought on Steven Soderbergh to direct second unit on one of the film’s big scenes?) Sure, Ross had been Oscar-nominated four times before (for writing Big , Dave , and Seabiscuit , which he also co-produced), but his resume was so far removed from the realm of dystopian teen science fiction that some fans were wary of what he’d do to the beloved franchise. He learned about the books from his children, both teenagers, pored over the first book himself, and decided at 1:30 a.m. that he needed to be the one to direct the big-screen adaptation. So what was his first move? Stalking, of course. “When we met directors, before I had met hardly anybody, he came to London – I was there working on another movie – and he pretended he was there for Wimbledon,” recalled producer Nina Jacobson, who optioned Collins book in 2009 before ultimately taking it to Lionsgate after fielding offers from multiple studio suitors. “We went out for breakfast and had an amazing conversation and it was very clear that what he loved about the book, and what mattered about the book, were the characters and the themes, and that he really got it. He got it at the most fundamental level. I had known him for a long time, but from that point on I was very mindful of how insightful he was about the material and how much he understood what it was really about.” Ross had never before had to audition for a directing job, he told Movieline earlier this month, so he went all out in his official pitch presentation. Commissioning multiple concept artists (“More than I’d had on the actual movie,” he quipped), Ross constructed elaborate storyboards depicting the look and feel of dystopian Panem, which he and production designer Philip Messina describe as “retro-futuristic.” But at the centerpiece of his presentation was a video he’d shot consulting young fans of the books discussing what themes spoke to them most in The Hunger Games . That video helped sell Jacobson. “He had this video that he had done of his kids and their friends, and what those kids loved about the book,” she recalled. “He could really appreciate from a fan point of view what it is that makes these books so moving – the idea, which was even inside his original conversations, that Katniss’s relationship with Rue is the thing that opens her up to the possibility of trusting Peeta. The deeper character and thematic lines in the material, he understood from the beginning, but he also had a sensitivity to what spoke to kids.” Once he landed the job, Ross pulled in notables in many fields to help achieve his vision, including composers James Newton Howard and T Bone Burnett, Clint Eastwood’s DP Tom Stern, and editors Stephen Mirrione (a Steven Soderbergh regular) and Juliette Welfling ( The Diving Bell and the Butterfly ). He also tapped an old friend to help out with one brief, but key, scene that he couldn’t shoot himself. Enter Soderbergh, who stepped in on second-unit duties and operated the camera himself on [SPOILERS] a riot scene that breaks out in District 11 during the Games. [END SPOILERS] Judge for yourself if Ross was the director for the job when The Hunger Games hits theaters March 23. Meanwhile, Ross is set to direct the sequel, Catching Fire , with Simon Beaufoy scripting. Read more on The Hunger Games . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
We were thinking “Nice Cakes” and Timberfake… Until they got to the part about the children! Via Gawker : This recently-engaged actress might be pissed when she finds out her new husband-to-be has more than one piece on the side. This actor is falling back into bad habits and this actress neglects her children. Can no one stay faithful anymore? Hmmm who could it be? SMH… ain’t nothing worse than a beautiful broad who reeks of desperation. More On Bossip! Pancakes: The 10 Hottest Women With The Tiniest Cakes For Your Information: 10 Disturbing Facts About Minorities In The Criminal Justice System For Your Viewing Pleasure: Mommy Banger BeyBey Takes Blue Ivy For A Walk With Mama Tina Til’ Cancellation Do Us Part: The Best And Worst Of Reality TV Weddings
Soleil Moon Frye takes a trip with her children to the Grove shopping center, and reveals that it’s all about balance in being both a mother and a celebrity. ‘Like’ us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hollywoodtv!
Bobbi Kristina , daughter of late pop music legend Whitney Houston , is set to inherit $20 million from her mother’s estate. According to TMZ , Whitney left all of her worldly possessions–including furnishings, clothing, personal effects, jewelry and cars–to all of her children. Since Bobbi Kristina is Houston’s only biological child, everything belongs to her. Whitney Houston’s will was filed yesterday in Atlanta. Whitney signed it back in 1993, a month before she gave birth to Bobbi. As per documents signed by Houston a month before Bobbi Kristina was born, Bobbi Kristina’s $20 million inheritance will be placed in a trust where she will be able to access a portion of the money when she turns 21. She will receive another lump sum at 25 and the remaining money once she turns 30. With the return of Houston’s music to the pop charts, that $20 million is likely to balloon into something heftier than that. Source RELATED: Oprah Lands First Exclusive Interview With Bobbi Kristina & Houston Family [SNEEK PEEK] Whitney Houston’s Mother Cissy Kicks Out “Secret Son” From Atlanta Home Houston Family Sells Funeral Coverage For Bobbi Kristina Whitney Houston Laid To Rest Beside Her Father [PHOTOS & VIDEO] Ray J Finally Breaks His Silence Bobby Brown Releases Statement On Why He Left Whitney’s Funeral [VIDEO] Whitney Houston Celebrated At Funeral [PHOTOS & VIDEO] Jennifer Hudson Sings Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” At Grammys [VIDEO] Bobby Declares Love For Whitney On Stage [VIDEO]
