Jersey Shore is going out on a high note, according to MTV, which is speaking out about its rationale behind canceling the hit show after six seasons. Executive VP of Programming Chris Linn says the cost of the cast was not factor, but “we always said we’d do the show as long as it made sense.” Long story short, that’s no longer really the case. “We noticed what was going on in their lives, with [ Snooki having her baby ], the relationships, etc. it felt like the right time to bring it to a close.” “The show still dominates, it’s the No. 1 show in our core demo, and it’s still incredibly successful. It’s really just about their lives evolving and changing in a way that moves everyone away from the original conceit of the show.” “We made what we think is the right, tough choice to end the show on top.” With Jersey Shore canceled after the coming season (debuting October 4), what kinds of things can we expect from the gang’s farewell tour? “What I think is most exciting about this season are the changes that have happened. This is the longest the cast has been apart between seasons,” Linn says. “There was time for new events to develop in their lives. Mike went into rehab and is coming back sober. Nicole is pregnant. Deena is in a different relationship.” “Sammi and Ronnie’s relationship has evolved. Their lives are at different stages and how they react and adapt to that is really fascinating to watch.” How much time did Snooki actually stay in the house? “It was really a matter of her wanting to be able to get proper rest at night and have a place she could go and relax. She moved into a place right next door, she spent the bulk of her time in the main [Jersey Shore] house,” he says. “The cast also came over to her place, so it gave us another place to go to. She’s very much present. It’s not in her character to not be in the middle of everything.” So what’s the major tension or storyline this fall? “The tension between Mike and Nicole definitely is a key storyline. My experience watching it, knowing it’s the last season, you see it through a different lens.” “It has a certain poignancy to it.” “In addition to the main 13 episodes, we have a significant amount of after-show content. We’ll have eight after-shows to give more context.” “We have the special look-back special the night of the VMAs (Sept. 6), it’s a ton of fun to look back at the biggest moments through the lens of ‘this is it.'” Is it possible the cast could be replaced with a new crop of guidos? “There are no plans for that … we’ve always been clear that this cast is lightning in a bottle. It’s not about the format, for us it’s always been about this cast.” What about a Snooki- Jionni LaValle wedding spectacular? “She’s been really focused on having a baby. We haven’t had any conversations about that. If and when she and Jionni are ready to tie the knot, my door is wide open and I’d love to talk to her about it.” Will you watch Jersey Shore Season 6?
Guess we’re not the only ones who thought Clint forgot to take his meds. In what was the oddest and most awkward moment of the night, Clint “Money Mitt Lover” Eastwood took to the stage and kind of made a fool of himself. The best part of this has been the hilarious tweets (even one from Obama) in reaction to the empty chair speech. In case you didn’t know, Clint was the “highlight” celebrity speaker of the RNC. LLS Images via Twitter
The October issue of Vanity Fair magazine has a Scientology-related cover story about Tom Cruise that makes Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master look like light comedy. In a feature titled, ” What Katie Didn’t Know: Marriage, Scientology-Style,” special correspondent Maureen Orth reveals the details of a top-secret 2004 mission that Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology head David Miscavige, undertook to find a girlfriend for Tom Cruise. The magazine reports that, according to several sources, the organization devised “an elaborate auditioning process in which actresses who were already Scientology members were called in, told they were auditioning for a new training film, and then asked a series of curious questions including: ‘What do you think of Tom Cruise?'” The sweepstakes winner was Iranian-born, London-raised actress Nazanin Boniadi, who had a recurring role in General Hospital and How I Met Your Mother . Boniadi dated Cruise from November 2004 until January 2005, after Orth reports, a month-long preparation in which she was “audited” every day — a Scientology-based process in which she revealed “her innermost secrets and every detail of her sex life.” Boniadi also underwent a physical transformation that allegedly included losing her braces, the red highlights in her hair and her boyfriend. (Orth cites a “knowledgeable source” who says that the actress was shown “confidential auditing files of her boyfriend to expedite the breakup,” although the church denied any “misuse” of confidential information.) According to Vanity Fair , Boniadi was flown to New York in November to meet Cruise. After dinner at Nobu and ice-skating at the Rockefeller Center rink there, which had been closed to the public but not “an entourage of Scientology aides,”, the actress spent the night with Cruise. Orth cites several sources who say the two did not have sex, but that Cruise told Boniadi, “I’ve never felt this way before.” Approximately one month and at least two confidentiality agreements later, the magazine reports, Boniadi was kicked to the curb. Orth writes that anything the actress said or did that met with Cruise’s disapproval was relayed to a member of the Scientology staff. Boniadi, also reportedly offended fast-talking Scientology top gun David Miscavige by repeatedly telling him “Excuse me?” while she was entertaining him in Telluride. (A representative for Miscavige told Vanity Fair , “Mr. Miscavige doesn’t remember any girlfriend of anyone, in his entire life, insulting him.”) Despite these reportedly stressful conditions, Boniadi “was in love with Cruise,” Orth writes. That said, she was “overwhelmed” by “the intensity of his affection, especially his predilection for public displays” — a detail that should not come as a surprise to those who remember Cruise expressing his newfound love for Katie Holmes on national TV by jumping on a couch on Oprah Winfrey’s show in 2005, Cruise, on the other hand, told Boniadi “I get more love from an extra than I get from you.” By the third week in January 2005, Boniadi was asked to move out of Cruise’s house and into Scientology’s Celebrity Centre. She was told that the Mission Impossible actor “wants someone with her own power — like Nicole,” as in Cruise’s ex-wife Nicole Kidman. Cruise would meet Homes later that year and announce his engagement to the Dawson’s Creek actress that June. Boniadi would not fare nearly as well. The magazine reports that when the actress ran into a friend at a Scientology Center in Florida, Boniadi spilled the beans on her relationship with Cruise, only to have the friend report her. As punishment for her indiscretion, a “knowledgeable source” told Orth that Boniadi’s punishment was “to scrub toilets with a toothbrush, clean bathroom tiles with acid and dig ditches in the middle of the night.” She was also tasked with selling copies of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s book, Dianetics on street corners. (A Scientology spokesperson told the magazine, “The Church does not punish people, especially in [that’ manner.”) A spokeswoman for Cruise called the Vanity Fair story, which includes a number of other revelations about Scientology and Cruise, “false.” [ Vanity Fair ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
How do you get in touch with Jeffrey Dean Morgan , who lives with his family far outside the confines of Hollywood “in the woods,” to ask him to be in your film? If you’re like The Possession director Ole Bornedal, you go old school. “The script was sent to me with a really nice letter that Ole had written asking me to be a part of it,” Morgan told Movieline. “It sat on my desk for a couple of days, but I kept reading this letter.” Eventually Morgan read the script and, enticed by the familial relationships at the center of the demonic possession tale, got over his reluctance to take on the “overdone” horror genre to play a father desperately trying to reconnect with his daughter — and, in the process, save her from an evil spirit. In this weekend’s The Possession Morgan plays Clyde Brenek, a career-focused college basketball coach whose pending divorce is taking a heavy toll on his two young daughters, one of whom — Em (Natasha Calis) — has formed a strange attachment to an antique Jewish box found at a yard sale. (The film is inspired by the real life account of the Dybbuk Box, a Hebrew wine cabinet allegedly haunted by an evil spirit which reigned down terror and ill fortune on multiple owners.) Movieline caught up with Morgan last month at Comic-Con , where the Watchmen veteran planned on walking the floor to find geek treasure for his son (“Sometimes it gets a little unruly for me down there, but I dig this world”), marveled at the maturity of his young co-stars (“I’ve worked with kids that are just horrendous, and it’s mostly because of their parents”) and discussed Karyn Kusama’s The Rut , in which he’d play dad to Chloe Moretz’s teenage huntress. What made you want to jump into a story like this? Because it was an actual story . I certainly wasn’t looking to do a horror movie — I think they’ve been kind of screwed up lately, all the found footage, it’s just been kind of overdone. The script was sent to me with a really nice letter that Ole [Bornedal] had written, asking me to be a part of it. I didn’t read the script; I was like, ‘Oh God, it’s a horror movie — it’s just not what I’m looking to do.’ It sat on my desk for a couple of days, and I kept reading this letter. What did it say? It was just very sweet and complimentary about my previous work, and it was really well-written. Do you get a lot of those letters? Sometimes! I guess I do, because I’m never around. I live in the woods, so really the only way you can get to me is if you send a letter. You’re like Bill Murray ! [Laughs] I love Bill Murray, but I’m not quite Bill Murray. I wish! So you got a letter from Ole. So, I got this letter — and I read the script and I was like, “Crap, this is a really good script.” The story’s there, it’s really character-driven, it’s not a typical horror movie. Demonic possession is its own storied subgenre within horror. What set it apart, beside the dybbuk aspect? I guess it’s a little Jewish. But I think it was the dynamic of these characters that sets it apart. The only way this movie works, the only way any movie works, is if somehow the audience can get invested in these characters. And again, I don’t know if this genre has capitalized on getting to know characters very well. I think this movie had that aspect to it. Then I watched a couple of Ole’s films and thought, this guy has a singular look that I haven’t seen. Him and his DP are so good at setting a mood and knowing where to put a camera — and you’d think all directors know this stuff but they really don’t, it’s a crap shoot. I felt like you really knew what he was doing behind the camera. I had a couple of conversations with him on the phone. He was like, “Don’t think of this as a horror movie,” and what he saw and what I saw were really meshing. You’ve played a lot of fathers, but here so much rides on finding the right young co-star. That was the other key for me — how are you going to find this little girl? You’re asking a lot of any actor, much less a young actor, to make this believable. Her performance is what makes this movie work or not work. He sent me a DVD of an audition/work session that he’d done with her, and only after I saw that did I agree to do the movie. I saw that audition and was like, holy God, this girl is something. And she really is something. The stuff she pulled… was amazing, and I don’t know how she did it and what kind of life experience she has to be able to draw from. It was terrifying to act opposite of. I guess that helps? Yes, but I was really worried for Natasha, going into some really dark places. For one, I didn’t know where she was going and getting this darkness. How old was she at the time? She was 11. Eleven! So it kind of blew my mind. Did you draw on your own life experience, being a father yourself, to tap into your character? Yeah. I love kids, which helps. And the opportunity to be the dad to Natasha [Calis] and Madison [Davenport] in this film, they were such great little girls and had such great senses of humor. They didn’t take themselves too seriously and they were actually little girls. Instead of miniature grown-ups? Yeah! I can hear her talk now and she’s grown up a lot since I last saw her, but she was just a kid! An eleven-year-old kid who was just a kid. She wasn’t some actor-y [child performer]. And Ole gave us an opportunity to not just stick to the page, so I was able to infuse some humor and other stuff that maybe wasn’t there, that kind of shows the father-daughter relationship, especially going through the divorce that my character is going through. So there are just some really real moments in this movie that were my favorite things to film. Natasha was so great at falling into that, I think I learned from her somehow. I thought I was going to have to be babysitting a kid, but she was probably more babysitting me. I’m just truly blown away by what she did and I give a lot of credit to her parents for raising her – I’ve worked with kids that are just horrendous, and it’s mostly because of their parents. [Laughs] Off- and on-camera. But off, yeah. They’re little beasts! Little holy terrors. And you always worry about that, you know? There’s that rule, don’t work with kids and animals. There’s a reason for that! But it was great, it was truly great. I think the relationship we formed between takes and off-camera really shows on screen. How would you describe Sam Raimi ’s influence as a producer on The Possession ? He’s sort of the innovator. I don’t know how much, but Sam would get the dailies after the first week and the notes stopped. I know that Sam was prepping his Oz movie at that time and he was watching the dailies, but all the feedback we were getting from Sam was really positive. He just sort of oversaw from afar. You have so many upcoming projects! Do you foresee any of them bringing you back to the genre fold again, the Comic-Con fold? None of them, really –— which means I need to find another one so I can come back! Maybe they’ll do something with the Watchmen stuff, the prequel stuff. Maybe we’ll get to do something there. You’re attached to a Karyn Kusama project called The Rut , which would be one of multiple projects with Chloe Moretz. I’m very excited about that. That’s one of those countless movies that you’re just waiting for all the pieces to come together, finances and all that, but I’m so thrilled to be working with her and Chloe, who I’ve done a couple of things with already. Chloe has established her reputation as the preeminent young lady ass-kicker. That’s exactly right! She’s doing Carrie now. She’s amazing, Karyn is amazing, and I think they got Ray Liotta to be the heavy in this. It’s a really cool script. It’s Winter’s Bone meets… Hanna , maybe? A little bit of Hanna ! I loved that movie, by the way. Good one. But I’m very excited about this movie. We need a winter location in the woods somewhere. Well, you do live in the woods. I know, and don’t think I haven’t said it! Because I do actually know where we could shoot this movie… The Possession is in theaters today. Read Movieline’s review here . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
There are few things more satisfying in this world than hearing Christopher Walken say the word “fuck.” Yes, his now-classic Saturday Night Live declaration of “I’ve got a fever and the prescription is more cowbell” is one of them, but let’s stay focused here. Walken and his co-star Colin Farrell let their filth flags fly in the Red Band trailer below for In Bruges director Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths . Indeed, save for their spirited f-bombing, the trailer recycles a number of scenes from the last clip we brought you — but it’s still damn funny. The movie is about a struggling writer, played by Colin Farrell, who finds himself in a whole lot of trouble after his friend, out-of-work actor and moonlighting dog-napper Sam Rockwell and his partner-in-crime (Walken) make off with a canine that belongs to a brutal gangster. The new trailer also gives the barest hint that Tom Waits, who’s also in the picture, definitely qualifies as one of the seven titular psychos. Check it out below. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
In the wake of a mammoth cast shakeup – Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg and Abby Elliot are all out – Saturday Night Live has announced its first three hosts and musical guests for its upcoming 38th season. September 15 : Seth MacFarlane/Frank Ocean September 22 : Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Mumford & Sons September 29 : Daniel Craig/Muse The season premiere gig will mark MacFarlane’s first SNL hosting experience. He’ll be on hand to promote the return episodes of Family Guy , American Dad (both September 30) and The Cleveland Show (October 7), along with the DVD release Ted . Ocean, meanwhile, has come out with his first solo album and also made headlines in July for revealing he’s bisexual .
Lindsay Lohan is back in surprisingly familiar territory as the prime suspect in a criminal investigation … oh how we only wish we were kidding. The troubled star is formally a suspect in the theft of $100,000 worth of watches and sunglasses from an L.A. home this month, TMZ reports. LiLo was recently at the Hollywood Hills home of Sam Magid, who called the LAPD and reported a jewelry theft the night after an all-night party. The 26-year-old star has been at the house frequently, including at the all-night house party a week ago Sunday when Magid reported the crime. Lindsay and her assistant Gavin Doyle are both suspects in the theft, with earlier reports suggesting that Lohan may have invited the robbers in . Now it appears she’s being fingered as the crook herself. There’s an odd twist, though, in that Magid has since recanted his story and now says nothing was stolen. Police aren’t closing the investigation, however. Officials believe independent witnesses can corroborate their belief that Lindsay and Gavin are the thieves and bring charges even without Magid. It’s not clear why the wealthy Magid would change his story. LAPD detectives contacted lawyers for Lindsay Lohan and Gavin Doyle today, asking for an interview with the two suspects; the request was denied. Lindsay, of course, is already on probation for a similar offense – her alleged jewelry heist from a store last year. An arrest here would look very, very bad. [Photo: WENN.com]
Watch Fashion's Night Out PSA with Justin Bieber , Darren Criss and more! Read the rest here: MTV Act Blog – [VIDEO] Usher, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber Strut In …
Watch Fashion's Night Out PSA with Justin Bieber , Darren Criss and more! Read the rest here: MTV Act Blog – [VIDEO] Usher, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber Strut In …
