Thompson on Hollywood

Pitt Chased Wired Cover

Brad Pitt graces the cover of Wired Magazine's August issue, which just arrived in my morning mail. (The mag hits newstands July 21, and will post on Wired.com Thursday night after E.T.'s broadcast break.) He's frowning at wearing a bluetooth headset, and the coverline reads "With advice from Inglourious Basterd Brad Pitt"---about all the mention his new movie receives in the magazine.

By Anne Thompson
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July 16, 2009 7:55 AM
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Daily Links: Twilight's Pattinson Lands Vanity Fair, Baldwin Gets Political, Last Wayne Film

First GQ and EW, now Vanity Fair. If you were the editor of a major magazine, I think you'd want Twilight star Rob Pattinson for your cover, too. He's booked for Vanity Fair in the fall, around the November release of New Moon. On Twitter, Pattinson fans track his every move and flick of an eyelash, from Rome to New York. Bruno is a fan too. He fantasizes about almost landing on Pattinson at the MTV Movie Awards, below.

By Anne Thompson
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July 8, 2009 8:13 AM
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Gone with the Wind Knocks Titanic Off B.O. Chart, Dark Knight Leads Flickchart Rankings

Inflation is a huge factor in figuring out the best box office performers of all time. Bloomberg's new inflation-adjusted chart places Gone with the Wind at the top of the U.S. top box office list, along with Star Wars, The Sound of Music and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Where's the mighty number one b.o. grosser of all time, Titanic? After The Ten Commandments. Years ago, Variety's late A.D. Murphy told me the same thing: adjusted for inflation, Gone with the Wind handily beats every challenger.

By Anne Thompson
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July 7, 2009 2:07 AM
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Michael Jackson's Will

The LATimes has posted a PDF of Michael Joseph Jackson's last will which is copied here:

By Anne Thompson
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July 1, 2009 5:13 AM
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Transformers' LaBoeuf: Troubled Star

What a difference two years makes. The picture on left of Shia LaBeouf ran in Parade Magazine when Disturbia made him into a star. The photo on the right ran this week in Parade in advance of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. (Here's http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117940483.html?categoryid=31&cs=1">Variety's review.) We all know that talent is only one component of a long and happy career. Stability is another. Or to put it another way, sometimes the sensitive tuning rod that is essential to a working actor's skill set isn't screwed on tight enough. LaBeouf speaks frankly about his demons. I wish him well in dealing with them.

By Anne Thompson
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June 16, 2009 7:16 AM
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ShoWest: Roger Ebert Honored

After a video montage in which directors Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, and Oliver Stone paid tribute to Roger Ebert, Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker presented ShoWest's Career Achievement in Film Journalism Award to the Pulitzer-Prize winning critic of the Chicago Sun-Times. "Roger Ebert is the most popular, most respected, most honored, and most eclectic film critic in American history," Barker said, citing Ebert as "one of the few saviors of independent film--films of all shapes and sizes--American independent features, foreign films, documentaries, and animated films. Ask any independent filmmakers who Roger has championed. Errol Morris will tell you Roger gave him his career. Louis Malle used to tell everyone Roger Ebert saved My Dinner With Andre and Atlantic City from disaster, Robert Altman the same with several of his films. Pan's Labyrinth, Memento, Monster, Hoop Dreams, Roger and Me--we would not know these movies in the way we know them if it were not for Roger Ebert. This is fact."

By Anne Thompson
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April 3, 2009 5:42 AM
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Awards Shows: Tone-Deaf Excess or Conspicuous Consumption?

[Posted by David S. Cohen]The gang at the NYT's take on the awards season and the red carpet is pretty downbeat. Laura Holson reports that updated old-Hollywood hairstyles will replace gaudy baubles on the red carpet, and that understated is in. Meanwhile Brooks Barnes says the glitter and self-congratulation of Award Season is "treacherous ground" and suggests Hollywood is in danger of looking like a bunch of Marie-Antoinettes. He notes that Hollywood has turned down the glamour before, after 9/11, and suggests it should do so again.

By Anne Thompson
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January 8, 2009 3:52 AM
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W Poised to Hit Zeitgeist, But Will It?

Lionsgate threw a party at the Landmark in Westwood Monday night for Oliver Stone's W, which was basically an intimate L.A. premiere for Stone and his cast; the movie will also premiere in New York and the Austin Film Fest. Josh Brolin soaked up the applause, flanked by his father and uncle; everyone agreed that he did a helluva job as George W. Bush, from Yale frat-party boy to reformed drunk and born-again Christian and one of the worst presidents in United States history. James Cromwell also scored big as Bush, Sr. in the father-son drama. Cast members Richard Dreyfuss, Scott Glenn, Ioan Gruffudd, and Noah Wyle were also on hand, along with producers Bill Block and Moritz Borman.

By Anne Thompson
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October 7, 2008 12:31 PM
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Screenwriting in Hollywood: A Modest Proposal

Features

Call Nancy Nigrosh a recovering agent. After 25 years as a talent agent repping writers and directors for film and television, she left her last gig at Innovative Artists. Freed from the shackles of agenting, she wrote what she calls her Parting Shot#1. If she's right, Hollywood's days of labor unrest are not over.

By Nancy Nigrosh
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October 2, 2008 8:29 AM
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Moore Begs Caroline Kennedy to Join Obama

With his latest attention-grabbing letter posted to his huge email list, Michael Moore makes a modest proposal to Caroline Kennedy, who heads Barack Obama's vice-presidential search committee: choose herself.