Friday, October 16, 2009

MD News Desk: The Butler Does It

Keep up to date with all the latest from the entertainment world with the MD News Desk:

Cinematic Crushes:
- No problem here: Gerard Butler likes to get naked.
- Casting About: Josh Duhamel in the Disney comedy What's He Got?, Ben Foster in the remake of The Mechanic, Matthew McConaughey in the legal drama The Lincoln Lawyer, Clive Owen in the sex predator thriller Trust, Ryan Reynolds in an untitled "dude-in-drag" rom com, and Chris Pine in the fact-based drama The Art of Making Money and possibly the next Jack Ryan flick.

And the List Goes On:
- Are these the Ten Worst Gay Movies of All Time?
- Ellen DeGeneres in Mr. Wrong tops AfterEllen.com's Top 8 Embarrassing Celezbrity Moments.

Awards Watch:
- Academy Award winning director Mike Nichols will receive the next American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. In addition to such certified classics as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate, Nichols has helmed such gay faves as Working Girl and Postcards from the Edge and the GLBT-inclusive works Silkwood, The Birdcage, Primary Colors and Angels in America.
- Are they actually going to try to put Meryl Streep's Julia Child in the supporting race?
- Here are the 65 countries in competition for the 2009 Foreign Language Film Oscar.
- The Independent Spirit Awards leave the beach and find a new home at LA Live.
- Welcome to the Wild Card Oscars. Speaking of which ...
- The Hangover: Best Picture nominee?

RIP:
- Singer Al Martino, who played Johnny Fontane in The Godfather, died Tuesday at the age of 82.
- Daniel Melnick, executive producer of That's Entertainment!, All That Jazz and Footloose, also passed away Tuesday. He was 77.

From Screen to Stage:
- The women of Nine go Vogue.
- Emmy winners Christopher Lloyd and John Larroquette to star in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas in LA.
- Melissa Gilbert graduates to Ma Ingalls in the national tour of the new musical Little House on the Prairie.
- Oscar winning songwriter Randy Newman gets his own jukebox musical.
- The national tour of Monty Python’s Spamalot comes to a close this weekend.
- The Lion King marks its tenth anniversary in the West End.
- Will Kristin Chenoweth be Fran Kubelik to Sean Hayes' Chuck Baxter in a Broadway revival of Promises, Promises, the musical version of The Apartment?
- "God, I hope I get it": the A Chorus Line documentary Every Little Step makes its DVD debtthis week. The Advocate interviews its co-director Adam Del Deo.

Best of the Fests:
- AFI Fest's 2009 lineup includes Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and The Road, with tributes to the latter two's respective stars Christopher Plummer and Viggo Mortensen. Tom Ford's A Single Man (which is scheduled to open in limited release December 11) will close out the fest, which runs from October 30 to November 7. And, oh yeah, it's free!

Glee:
- The track list for the volume 1 soundtrack is now posted on Amazon.com... and while you're there, be sure to pre-order it (releases November 3).
-Yes! The Glee gang to go on tour!
- No! NBC nixes the Glee gang from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
- Snap! Glee creator Ryan Murphy responds.

Coming Soon:
- Sex and the City 2 Watch: Penélope Cruz to cameo as a banker who crosses paths with Mr. Big. Also: Charlotte gets a new nanny, and who will play the token lesbian?
- Dancing with the Stars alum Julianne Hough joins Christina Aguilera in a little Burlesque.
- Forget the "twilight bark", here's the official Twilight Twitter.
- The busy Jon Favreau won't direct The Avengers after all.
- "This. Is. Moses!" The Ten Commandments to get a 300 makeover.


The Latest on TV:
- Ugly Betty is back! The two-hour fourth season premiere airs tonight on ABC. In other Betty news: the TV Guide Channel will start airing reruns next week, and to stay up-to-date on all things Betty, be sure to subscribe to the official Ugly Betty YouTube channel.
- Dancing with the Stars will pay tribute to Michael Jackson on next Tuesday's results show.