One former employee of Britney Spears has rushed to the singer’s defense. With Sam Lufti taking the stand this week in a defamation suit against the singer and her family – claiming Britney overdosed on amphetamines and her dad once beat him up , among other charges – Leah Frand has come out and sent a message to Spears’ ex-manager: LIAR! Frand worked for Britney for about half a year in 2007 and tells TMZ she was around the superstar all the time. Was Spears hooked on drugs? “I have never seen meth in that house or any type of drug,” Frand tells the site. Lutfi alleged in court a few days ago that he discovered a bag of Meth in Britney’s house and that she famously shaved her head back in the day so her hair could not be tested for foreign substances. But Lutfi is simply a “low life loser” according to Frand, someone evil and desperate enough to have planted drugs in Britney’s house. And also someone who was never technically employed by the pop star. “I don’t know what the hell he was doing [in her life] honestly,” Frand says. “Being Britney’s bitch basically and not getting paid for it.”
Kristen Stewart gave her first farewell comments to Twilight and her character Bella in Tokyo ahead of the super-popular franchise’s final installment, Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 , which opens in November. She said parting with Twilight is hard, but Bella, Robert Pattinson ‘s Edward and Taylor Lautner ‘s Jacob have been able to get “everything.” “I’m definitely not excited for it to be over,” Stewart said at a recent press conference in Japan as quoted by Access Hollywood. “But, now that the whole story is told and everything is done and we don’t have those big moments weighing on us [and now] that Bella can finally have everything that she wants, I can’t wait for everyone to feel that as well.” Stewart said the love triangle between Bella, Robert Pattinson’s Edward and Lautner’s Jacob carried the story in the earlier installments of Twilight carried the story, but her marriage and subsequent conversion to vampirism ushered in a new relationship. “The whole love triangle thing — she needs Jacob in her life, he needs her in the same way, it’s not like [an] unbalanced thing,” noted Stewart. “I think that they really offer each other so much and if you can get past conventions and what everyone else is thinking, and have what you want, then you’re gonna be a much happier person…. They really do get to a point where they get to have everything and it’s nice.” Down in Australia promoting the film, Pattinson said recently that Stewart’s entree as a vampire had been quite an experience for the actress, and unlike others who had been playing parts of the undead in other installments. “Yeah, she was really excited about being a vampire. Everybody else who’d been pretty consistently in the movies, they’d obviously been playing a vampire like every day for ages. And so it’s funny seeing someone suddenly come into it and try and figure out their own version of the physicality and the mentality of it. But her character has a different thing, because she’s supposed to find it really easy. It’s supposed to be a natural progression for her to become a vampire, it’s supposed to be simple. So I guess it was kind of different.” “I think it represents a stage of life that is so full and it’s so full of feeling and I think that it really attracts people that have faith in those feelings and it doesn’t discredit them,” added Stewart. “I think it’s fairly rare to have a story that really gives a lot of credit to young girls that haven’t figured it all out yet, but are incredibly trusting of themselves. I think that a really good, hard-hitting, fundamentally charged love story is always gonna — I don’t know – it’s always going to fuel something inside of us.” The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 opens November 16th. [ Source: Access Hollywood ]
Poor Jason Momoa . Just a year after he helped reboot the Conan the Barbarian franchise, original Conan Arnold Schwarzenegger and Universal Pictures have struck a deal to reboot the reboot , putting Arnie back in the role of the muscled, sword-swinging warrior. Deadline reports that Paradox Entertainment’s Fredrik Malmberg and Chris Morgan will produce the re-reboot (Un-boot? Retro-boot?) The Legend of Conan with Morgan scripting. The idea is to catch up with Schwarzenegger’s older Conan years after his original heroic ascent, whose challenges will include “dealing with age.” “It’s that Nordic Viking mythic guy who has played the role of king, warrior, soldier and mercenary, and who has bedded more women than anyone, nearing the last cycle of his life. He knows he’ll be going to Valhalla, and wants to go out with a good battle,” Malmberg said. The sequel will directly follow 1982’s Conan the Barbarian but may even ignore that film’s 1984 sequel, Conan the Destroyer . Said Morgan, screenwriter of four Fast & Furious films, Wanted , Cellular , and the upcoming Universal epic 47 Ronin : “We think this is a worthy successor to the original film. Think of this as Conan’s Unforgiven .” Yes, think of this indeed. Then tell me your thoughts in the comments below as we all imagine the 65-year-old Arnold slipping into that fur-lined barbarian banana hammock once more. [ Deadline ]
That’s a bad way to go out… Bullied 15-Year-Old Jumps In Front Of Train In Front Of Classmates Via NYPost A Staten Island teen who pals said had been relentlessly tormented by bullies leaped to her death in front of a train yesterday as her classmates looked on in horror. The Huguenot Staten Island Railway station platform was packed with fellow students from Tottenville HS at around 3:15 when a sobbing Felicia Garcia suddenly broke away and jumped. She died at Staten Island University Hospital. Her sudden death came as a shock, but friends blamed bullying. “She got bullied in the school, especially by the football players, because she looked different and had piercings,” said senior Amanda Liquori. Another friend, who asked that her name be withheld, was at her side when she jumped and had no idea what she planning. That friend also said football players targeted Garcia. “She wouldn’t have done it if she wasn’t bullied,” another pal, Alissa Compitello, wrote on Twitter. “All this girl wanted was to be left alone. And nobody could do that for her.” Apparently bullying wasn’t the only pain in Felicia’s life. Gabriella Leone, whose younger sister witnessed the incident, said Felicia, who lived in foster homes, “had a terrible life on top of all the heartache — bullies at school taunted her and spread rumors. I hope all bullies get punished!” Felicia had written online of her depression. On her Instagram account, she had a picture of her eyes crossed over by the word “Depressed” with the caption, “Just because someone is smiling doesn’t make them happy.” Chancellor Dennis Walcott is in touch with the girl’s legal guardian, according to Department of Education spokeswoman Margie Feinberg. Two years ago, another Tottenville HS student killed himself at the same station. R.I.P. Felicia, remember, it’s never as bad as you think it is. Get help, don’t let bullying ruin your life. Images via Twitter/Instagram
Stephen Colbert has made an enticing offer to Donald Trump. In response to Trump’s pledge that he will donate $5 million to the charity of Barack Obama’s choice, provided the President release his full college transcript, The Colbert Report host has addressed The Donald and offered the following: $1 million to the charity of Trump’s choice… if Trump lets Colbert dip his testicles into his mouth any time prior to Halloween eve. Stephen Colbert Makes Offer to Donald Trump “Nothing would make me happier than to write this check,” Colbert says to Trump. “And nothing would make America happier than to have something going into your mouth than coming out of it.” Should Trump accept the offer? Yes, it’s $1 million!!! No, that’s gross!!! View Poll »
Emily Maynard’s fiance, Ricky Hendrick, died in a tragic plane crash in 2004. Tuesday, on the anniversary of his death, The Bachelorette star tweeted a Bible verse as a poignant reminder that he is still present in her life and her daughter Ricki’s. Emily Maynard wrote, citing 1 Corinthians 2:9 … “However, as it is written: ‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived – the things God has prepared for those who love him.'” She also linked to the the above photo collage. “Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy,” she captioned the touching image above. Emily, of course, has found love (and reality stardom) twice in the years since – although things didn’t work out with Brad Womack or Jef Holm in the end. Still, the two were spotted together in Charlotte, N.C., last weekend, so perhaps there’s hope of a reconciliation? Only time will tell if it was more than a one-shot deal. Either way, Ricky will always be there for Ricki, and Emily.
Guess you can’t believe everything you read right?? LLS. Rumors about Breezy’s back-up boo-thang carrying his seed are false. Hollywoodscoop broke it down and knocked that fake isht down quick: Despite what you read online today i.e. Chris Brown hooked up with his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran and and now she’s pregnant…None of it is true. Chris Brown was spotted with his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran on Monday in LA, just days after Rihanna was his plus 1 to an event in Hollywood. And if you’re wondering why Chris was casually hanging out with Karrueche even after he publicly dumped her, rumor had it that she was pregnant and begging him to get back together with her. Well, sorry bout it, but she’s NOT. If the rumor mill did ANY fact checking, they would know that Karrueche tweeted a photo last night of her standing next to a giant bottle of tequila and wrote, “much love to El Cartel Tequila for sending a bottle tonight! Xoxo” Last I checked, you can’t drink when you’re pregnant. It’s kind of a thing. Just a couple days ago she also tweeted a pic and wrote, “Yesterday I thought I was bout that life…til all the alch hit me later that day lmao.” “alch” = alcohol. Twitter 101, guys, c’mon. MediaTakeOut.com was the first outlet to report the bogus claim that Karrueche was “with child.” They claimed she was 2 months pregnant. “Kae wanted to start a family with Chris, she thought he wanted that too . . . then this [Rihanna mess] started. Right now she’s confused, but she still wants Chris in her life, and their child’s,” said the source. So much drama. This love triangle is so Maury right now, I can’t even deal. Too bad it’s not real! Another Kae source told TMZ a very similar story, leaving out the part about the pregnancy. They say Kae wants Chris back because she got used to being a “famous” girlfriend. Earlier today, Karrueche tweeted, “LMAO,” which might be her way of laughing at the rumors? Maybe? Maybe not? Basically, the Internet thinks Kae wants Chris back badly but it’s not because she’s pregnant, maybe she just hates waiting in line at Greystone Manor now? We’re actually glad she isn’t. A baby is the last thing this little drama-filled love triangle needs. Images via Splash News
Compact and athletic in their identical cargo pants, Alex ( Gael García Bernal ) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) are almost the same size, a pair of well-traveled pixies making their way through Georgia (the country, not the state). They’re engaged to be married, but in the meantime they’re backpacking, a journey that, when The Loneliest Planet begins, is about to take them into the Caucasus Mountains on a multi-day hike for which they’ve hired a guide named Dato (Bidzina Gujabidze). They look so happy and free, Nica and Alex, trying out the few phrases of Georgian they’ve picked up and partaking of local street food after a minor investigation as to what kind of meat it involves. They’re the opposite of ugly Americans (Alex might not actually be American at all), ready to try anything and quietly confident that they’ll be welcomed, that the world is meant to be explored. The third film from Julia Loktev ( Day Night Day Night ) and, by this critic’s reckoning, one of the finest of the year, The Loneliest Planet is based on a short story by Tom Bissell that’s itself inspired by a famous Hemingway work, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber . That earliest incarnation of this narrative is about a wealthy couple on a hunting trip in Africa lead by a professional guide, the wife a beautiful, emasculating figure who punishes her husband for a recent display of cowardice out in the bush. Bissell offered up a less toxic, contemporized take on the characters, but Loktev’s version is something else again, a profoundly cinematic exploration of the way a single incident completely unsettles the way this man and woman think of each other and themselves. The Loneliest Planet is primarily a three-person drama, and its eventual deep emotional turmoil and the power shifts that come with it play out not in speech but in behavior, submerged in everything from the withholding of physical contact to the formation in which the trio of hikers walks. The splintering incident, which takes place at the midpoint of the film, is in fact never discussed, though it reverberates throughout everything that follows. It’s a frightening but relatively minor thing that comes complete with a punchline, the kind of story you’d get mileage out of at a dinner party, but what it reveals about Alex and, eventually, Nica, is such that the couple stumbles through the hours after in a state of shock. The Loneliest Planet was made with an intoxicating and precise faith in the ability of images to convey feelings that words would be too clumsy and blunt to appropriately delineate. Its sophistication in its storytelling isn’t minimalism, exactly – the film never feels like it’s making a gimmick of its stretches of silence or choosing them over exchanges of dialog, but rather makes it clear that speech is unnecessary or inadequate. The film’s giant in scope, set against gorgeous wilderness, pulling back for periodic long shots in which the characters are tiny beside the splendid scenery. But its dramas are claustrophobic, defined in part by the presence of Dato as the outsider witnessing this implosion, the three always in each other’s company as they make their way over rocky and grassy terrain and break to camp for the night. Loktev, working with cinematographer Inti Briones, allows the film to flow out in long takes, the camera another impassive observer, sometimes still and other times tracking alongside the trio as they walk. The unbroken shots demand very intimate performances – Bernal and Furstenberg both have interesting, mobile faces that are allowed to occupy the frame for unhurried beats. Furstenberg, with her bright red hair and gap teeth, is a goofily unconventional beauty, and Bernal’s at his best like this, when he allows his handsomeness to be accompanied by a note of shiftiness. He and Furstenberg suggest their characters’ whole history together in easy shorthand, from the game they make of conjugating verbs in Spanish to the way they settle in to read Knut Hamsun at night in their tent. They aren’t smug, but a halo of bohemian sophistication illuminates many of their actions, from Nica’s insistence that she doesn’t need help navigating a tricky crossing to Alex noting that he doesn’t have a car, only a bicycle. As it’s put to the test several times in the latter half of the film, it’s revealed as a surface quality covering up underlying expectations neither Nica nor Alex may have realized they harbored. Non-pro Gujabidze brings both a dry humor and an almost frightening soulfulness to his character. As Nica drifts to his side, a cowed Alex trails after them, seeking out penance by insisting they needn’t stop when he hurts his leg and going out into the rain without a jacket. Dato’s otherness becomes evident and a kind of test, the life he’s led so different and so marked by tragedy that he dwarfs Nica and Alex in the privilege they’ve been able to enjoy, in the existences that have left them unscarred, fresh and unaware. They are, for all their curiosity and adventurousness, just visitors, passing through and taking in these sites and experiences before heading home. For all the film’s long silences, it’s the opening up and talking that becomes the loneliest moment of them all, a sharp and the sudden reveal of the distance that can exist between two people. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Also in Wednesday evening’s round-up of news briefs: Garden State filmmaker Zach Braff is readying a comedy series for ABC. The Academy announces its Screenwriting Nicholl Fellowship winners and a Bin Laden raid film produced by Harvey Weinstein has Republicans in a rage. Academy Announces Nicholl Fellowships Five writers have been selected as recipients of the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition. Each writer will receive $35K and will be feted at a November 8th gala in Beverly Hills. The winners are: Nikole Beckwith ( Stockholm, Pennsylvania ), Sean Robert Daniels ( Killers , James DiLapo ( Devils at Play ), Allan Durand ( Willie Francis Must Die Again ) and Michael Werwise ( Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile ). The winners were selected from 7,197 entries. Around the ‘net… Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty May Not Open Wide Until January The possible Oscar contender may only open in NYC and LA on its official opening date December 19 and may only open more slowly across the country, theater owners have been told. It may expand to the top 10 – 12 markets January 4 and then nationwide January 11. The film depicts the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, THR reports . Johnny Depp Eyes Transcendence The film will be the directorial debut of cinematographer Wally Pfister ( The Dark Knight Rises ) The Alcon Entertainment/Warner Bros. project is set for an early 2013 shoot. Details of the plot are being kept under wraps, but the screenplay is written by newcomer Jack Paglen, Deadline reports . ABC Buys Zach Braff Comedy Braff will write, direct and executive produce Garage Bar , which will combine a “workplace idea with the heart and humor of Braff’s 2008 feature Garden State . It will center on a group of friends who start to experience the ups and downs of fame when one of them becomes a pop star,” Deadline reports . Bin Laden Film Incenses GOP A film about the killing of Osama bin Laden, which will air two nights before the US presidential election, has been re-edited to feature more footage of Barack Obama, prompting accusations Hollywood is trying to swing the vote. Harvey Weinstein who has contributed to the president’s campaign, tweaked the film Seal Team Six: the Raid on Osama bin Laden to broaden Obama’s role, The Guardian reports .
Love or hate his shtick, Kevin Smith dropped some amusingly candid real talk on Larry King Now as he explained to the media kingpin why it is he’s retiring from moviemaking after his forthcoming hockey film, Hit Somebody . “If I can’t bring anything new to the game, and I assure you I cannot, there’s no point in stepping up to the plate,” said Smith, who also charmingly compared his 20 years behind the camera to getting an unexpected blow job. Well, Clerks and the success that followed wasn’t just like any blow job. “It was like hoping for a kiss and getting the most amazing blow job you’ve ever had in your life,” he explained to King, who nearly choked as he nodded in recognition. Somebody here knows what you’re talkin’ about, Mr. Smith. Hit Somebody was previously said to star Red State cast members Kyle Gallner, Nicholas Braun, and Michael Angarano, although the project has yet to begin filming. Meanwhile, Smith’s not going anywhere; he may be moving out of the director’s chair but he’s got his multimedia interests (SModcast podcast, books, live shows, Spoilers on Hulu, AMC’s Comic Book Men, Twitter ). [ Larry King Now via Joblo ]
