Charlie Sheen no longer wants to be associated with strippers. Unless he’s personally associating with them, that is. The actor is threatening legal action against a Times Square gentlemen’s club named Cheetahs because it has set up a VIP room named after the warlock himself. What can one do inside the “Charlie Sheen Room? Eat sushi of nearly-naked women, of course, while staring at photos on the wall of the former Two and a Half Men star. “Charlie has nothing to do with this and it is unfortunate that these despicable parasites have not been exterminated,” Sheen’s rep, Larry Solters, tells E! News in the sort of language that makes us miss Sheen’s Korner . Sam Zherka, president of the parent company that owns Cheetahs, told The New York Post that the roomed was christened a year ago because: “We figured it would be comical to name a room after him. It was a room where you could dine on sushi served on cellophane on the body of one of our entertainers, not where you do crack.” Still, Zherka has received a cease-and-desist letter from Sheen’s attorney and has complied with the demand to remove Sheen’s name from the joint. He just doesn’t understand why. “How could sushi damage Charlie Sheen’s reputation?” Zherka asks.
The pastor’s family that Casey Anthony hid with after her shocking murder trial acquittal last year left a scathing voicemail for her this January. Pastor Steve Camp and his wife Cindy run the Cross Church of Palm City where Casey was rumored to be hiding out after her release from jail. In the voicemail, Cindy voices heartbreaking betrayal and urges Casey Anthony her not to deal with powerhouse attorney Jose Baez any longer. She also calls her out for being selfish and self-centered. Cindy Camp lambasts Baez for taking advantage of their family and Casey, then goes OFF on the 26-year-old’s recent behavior, with few specifics. The voicemail was left in January 2012, just days after bizarre the Casey Anthony diary video showing off her “new life” somehow leaked online. That same week, Baez called it quits , opting to no longer represent the accused child murderer. It’s unclear why the two decided to part ways. Here is the voicemail transcribed and obtained by Radar Online: It is Friday night. I just listened to your conversation with Steve when you hung up on him. I want you to know something. You are dealing with the wrong person when you’re dealing with Jose. He is the one that gives us up. This is no longer about you. I’ve had media parked out front at the end of my driveway for the last 48 hours. People are protesting, they’re throwing rocks, they’re coming up to the door, some guys are leaving you notes and love letters. This is not about you. This is about our church, this is about my family. My daughter’s picture has been on the Internet and Steve hasn’t said a word. Not one word. People are writing the most vile, repulsive things to him via e-mail and Twitter and Facebook and it’s just disgusting and he has not said a word. You are siding with the wrong person. Jose is going to do you wrong. He’s already done you wrong. He’s sold us out and we know it for a fact. I don’t care if you don’t want to hear it, that is a fact. You have a church here, you have people that care about you and have protected you. We haven’t said a word, until, all of a sudden, it would be good to know that you were just going to up and leave four days ago, we could have made a very simple statement and avoided all of this hassle. But this is unbelievable to me and I think you need to rethink and seriously pray about what you’re doing. This has nothing to do with you down in your undisclosed location, it’s right here hot in my yard, and we are still sticking up for you. I just want you to know that because we love you and we’ve cared for you. And that is not going to change. We will still protect you. But this is just…don’t you ever hang up on my husband again. He has been the truest strength you’ve ever had and the kids are just going to be heartbroken. I don’t know what you’re doing. I can’t believe it. For once get outside your own head and think of someone else. Think of this family…they deserve thanks, thanks for having my back here, I’m sorry you have to go through this…nothing! It’s just all about you! What is wrong with you?! Really? Anyway, that’s all I have to say so I guess we’ll hear from you or something, I hope. Anyway, I do love you. I want you to think seriously about what you’re doing, not just for you, but for all involved. Thank you. Goodnight .
Levi Johnston turns 22 years old today. For a brief synopsis of Levi’s short time on this planet, let’s turn it over to his Wikipedia bio, because the facts are funnier than anything we could write: “He first received media attention in August 2008 upon Sarah Palin’s announcement that her daughter Bristol was five months pregnant and that Johnston was the father. Wedding plans were scrapped when the pair broke off their engagement in March 2009.”
See now this is how you’re supposed to wear spandex pants. Sure they’re a little too long for my taste, but paired with a revealing tank top the whole thing works. Here’s Miley Cyrus at it again in her hot yoga gear heading to her car. I know I’ve posted a tone of these pictures and they all pretty much look the same, but I just can’t seem to get enough of that sweet sweet booty. Do a deep knee bend for me.
My name is Alexi and my Bieber experience happened on April 27th 2012. My friend and I skipped school to go see Justin in the city at the Tribeca Film Festival . We got there at 8:00 a.m and it started at 11 a.m. We were so excited and anxious. We didn’t know if he was going to be in the front or the back so we went to the back and spoke to the security guards and it seemed like he was going to the back. One of the guards told us he was coming through the back and we started bugging out! We were the ONLY ones in the back! It was finally 12 and he was really late, we were so nervous. Finally he pulls up and comes over to where I was and I start shaking! I said, “Justin can you take the picture?” He smiled and checks out my weird purple sweatshirt phone case and took the picture. Then he took a picture with two other girls and I go, “JUSTIN WAIT! Can I get a kiss?” and he kissed my cheek and made a ”Mwaaah” sound! I literally started hyperventilating and thank God I got a picture of it! Then an hour later we walked back out and there were SO many girls this time. He came to me again and I asked if I can give him a kiss on the cheek this time and he put his cheek out and I kissed him! We then followed his car and it was just 4 of us. We started talking to him but he didn’t put his window down all the way because of paparazzi. He was so funny and nice! I took my phone case off and gave it to him and he put it on his phone! Then they drove away! I was so happy that this happened, I couldn’t be more happy. I love Justin and I can’t wait to meet him again! -@alexiiezz View post: My name is Alexi and my Bieber experience happened on April…
I’m sorry if you’re getting annoyed with all the pictures I keep posting of Miley Cyrus leaving her pilates class, but man is she looking awesome these days. I mean, obviously she’s a young hot celebrity and this is pretty much her job now, but her body just keeps getting better and better. Isn’t pilates just rolling around on the floor in tight pants? I might have to sign up for a few classes at the Y. Where do I keep my short shorts?
It’s hard to say whether Sound of My Voice is a wholly bogus and pretentious indie enterprise or a weirdly compelling bit of low-budget storytelling. Probably it’s a little of both – this is the kind of picture that may often make you snort audibly, even as you’re wondering how the heck it’s going to resolve itself. And ultimately, even if the payoff isn’t quite what it should be, the picture leaves a faint chill in its wake. You probably won’t feel totally shafted for sticking with it – maybe just a little punk’d. Snuggly couple Peter (Christopher Denham) and Lorna (Nicole Vicius) have set out to make a documentary about cults, hoping to infiltrate one mysterious group in particular. The gang’s meeting place is a top-secret basement location; the faithful are ferried to and fro in a van, but they’re not allowed to see where they’re going. Once the loyal subjects have gathered, decked out in aggressively peaceful looking white yoga clothes, a mysterious creature appears in their midst. Her name is Maggie — she’s played by indie darling Brit Marling , who also co-wrote the script – and she greets her followers while hooked up to an oxygen supply. You see, Maggie is a refugee from the future – 2054, to be exact – and she’s come back to show the human beings she loves how to prepare for what lies ahead. To do this, she wears white leggings and swaths her long blond tresses in a white scarf. Because she’s allergic to modern food, she grows her own fruit in the basement. Also, she’s wearing massively chipped dark nail polish, the kind of WTF touch that makes you stop and wonder – WTF? Actually, Sound of My Voice relies heavily on just that kind of WTF-ness. Is Maggie a con artist, a master manipulator, as Peter and Lorna at first believe her to be? But when she appears to have read bits of Peter’s past as if they were tealeaves, doubt begins to creep in, driving the couple apart. Maggie certainly knows how to challenge her followers, urging them to eat apples tainted with something that causes them to throw up (the fruit is a metaphor for logic, you see) and serving them a post-fast repast straight out of Fear Factor (I won’t tell you what it consists of, but she seems to carry a supply of it around in a baggie). There’s also lots of sharing and hugging, Esalen-style, as Maggie probes the psyches of those in her midst, testing them to see if they’re worthy of the wisdom she’s carrying around in her futuristic noggin. Director Zal Batmanglij – also Marling’s co-writer — doesn’t attempt too many fancy tricks, other than dividing his movie into convenient, bite-sized chapters. He and Marling infuse the story with just enough slackerish suspense: You may not care much about the rather aimless lead characters, but you do want to know what this Maggie shaman is all about. That’s partly thanks to Marling’s off-kilter charisma, which appears to be equal parts nerd-girl intensity and beach-babe shrug. Marling garnered heaps of attention last year for Another Earth , a movie she both cowrote and starred in, and it’s clear to see she knows how to do a lot with a little. The question of whether it’s enough depends on your expectations, and it’s possible that people have taken Marling too seriously too soon, which in turn has led her to take herself too seriously. She certainly digs right into this enigmatic role, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find her weirdly fascinating, with her heavy eyebrows and serene, pillowy half-smile. Still, a bit of skepticism is a good thing when dealing with either cults or alleged wunderkinds. At one point in Sound of My Voice , Maggie’s followers urge her to sing a song from the future, and she obliges, reluctantly, with an a capella version of a sweet little ditty about life changing all around us. A guy named Lem is banished from the circle forever after he points out that, far from being a song from the future, the tune Maggie just warbled is actually a Cranberries hit from the ’90s. Lem just may be the hero of the movie. Similarly, the jury is still out on just what it is, exactly, Marling is trying to sell us. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
James McTeigue ’s The Raven , a thriller set in Baltimore during the last days of Edgar Allan Poe’s life, is a handsome-looking thing, with fairly grand period costumes and reasonably lavish sets. So much for production values: In every other way the picture is stiff and unyielding, hampered by a clumsy plot and diorama performances. The whole thing has the feel of a second-rate living-history exhibit. John Cusack plays the beleaguered Poe, who hasn’t had a literary hit in a long time and doesn’t even have enough dough in his pocket to buy the good stiff drink he sorely needs: When the barkeep at the local watering hole refuses to serve him, he tosses a pile of coins and crumpled money on the bar, and there’s an old button mixed in there, too. Still, Edgar finds some solace in his romance with the pretty, vivacious Emily Hamilton (Alice Eve), whose father greatly disapproves of the match. (It helps that he’s played by a gruff, grouchy Brendan Gleeson, taking his role only about as seriously as he needs to.) Meanwhile, there’s something really ugly going down in Baltimore. A serial killer is offing his victims via grisly means clearly inspired by Poe’s stories: A mother and daughter suffer a throat cutting and a strangulation, respectively, a la “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” A critic (!) named Griswold – based on one of Poe’s real-life adversaries — is slowly, excruciatingly bisected by a scary slicer thing right out of “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Fields (Luke Evans), a young detective working on the case, appeals to Edgar to help him find the culprit. To complicate matters, the creep absconds with Emily and challenges Edgar to find her before she succumbs to the nasty death he’s got planned for her. That’s not a terrible premise for a film, and The Raven at least offers the occasional spurting blood vessel of gruesome fun. Sometimes, though, it seems to aspire to be a sort of period Saw — albeit a much tamer one – with a degree of sadism it really doesn’t need. McTeigue (who directed, seemingly a century ago, the adaptation of Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vendetta ) is working from a script by Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare, and you can see he’s pedaling hard to keep the suspense level high: The Raven seems to be striving to jazz up Poe the way Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes movies tried – unsuccessfully – to capture the spark of Arthur Conan Doyle. Along the way, the plot wobbles off the rails too many times to count, particularly as the movie rattles toward its convenient wrap-up, but that isn’t even the major problem with it. It all could have worked, maybe – if only Cusack, as the frustrated, impoverished genius, weren’t so insufferable. Cusack tries to turn Poe into a tragic crank, a man whose brilliance was sorely underappreciated by the masses, and even if the approach is believable enough, Cusack too often comes off as an imperious bore. He peers at the folk around him through those small, dark, glittering eyes; sometimes he condescends to them with that reluctant crinkle of a smile. Cusack has often been a marvelous actor – he was convincingly haunted in the 2007 Stephen King adaptation 1408 – but he makes a smug Poe, not a tortured one. It doesn’t help that the character keeps reminding everyone in the movie, and us, how brilliant he is. The real Poe was brilliant, and the literature he left behind elicits a particular type of delicate but bone-rattling shiver; no artist since has been able to match it. Do we really need John Cusack strutting around in a floaty cape, bellyaching about how the simpletons around him just don’t get his genius? Poor Edgar sure didn’t have it easy in life; the last thing he deserves is to be portrayed as a pompous ass. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Alright, I’ve been talking a lot about how much I love that Miley Cyrus has been doing that pilates crap pretty much every day for the last few months. Here she is again leaving her workout… Wait, are those jeans? What the hell? Ok so she’s not leaving a workout, but her legs look pretty damn good in those tight ass jeans. I’ll take it.
Attention, Twihards: stop bidding on the Breaking Dawn sex pillow and feast your eyes on the following photos. Summit Entertainment has released a pair of new photos from the final Twilight Saga installment – first posted by our friends at Movie Fanatic – and we’ve got your early look below. It’s not an especially exciting early look, we grant you, it’s just a glimpse at the newly-married Cullens and at Taylor Lautner as Jacob. But since when has anyone minded staring at these three, right? That’s what we figured… Last month, Summit also unveiled the first Breaking Dawn Part 2 trailer , featuring Bella as a vampire. It’s rather awesome. The Twilight Saga concludes on November 16.
