in the cannes

What's Stopping Cannes From Embracing Bleak New Julianne Moore Film?

The Cannes rumor mill is whirring at full speed again today as the trades pick up whispers that the Julianne Moore/Mark Ruffalo drama Blindness is likely to occupy the opening-night slot. The Toronto Star is saying it's a done deal, but it's not official, and we're not so sure; with barely two weeks remaining before the May 14th opener, word over the Defamer transom suggests that Blindness is bad enough to make festival programmers wait — and make distributor Miramax stall — before committing the plum spot to a stinker.

But isn't this the same festival that opened in 2006 with The Da Vinci Code? Just how bad is "bad"?

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trade roundup

Writerless Talk Show Host Carson Daly Ready To Try And Survive On Charm Alone

· A brave Carson Daly will be the first late-night talk show host to cross the picket line and attempt to return to work without a writing staff; upon his arrival at the studio, Daly will be awkwardly reminded by a security guard that his show was canceled two years ago. [THR]
· I'm Not There, expected to duke it out in every Oscar category you got with similarly ambitious music biopic Walk Hard, leads the Independent Spirit Award nominations with four. Angelina Jolie flop A Mighty Heart and Ang Lee's artsy, NC-17 fuckfest Lust, Caution received three nods each. [Variety]

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hollywood privacywatch

Morpheus Browses Bristol Farms' Wide Selection Of Sparkling Waters

PrivacyWatch celebrity sightings are submitted by our readers, and are posted several times a week, so send them in often. Submit yours to tips[AT]defamer.com (please put "sighting" or "PrivacyWatch" in the subject line so we don't lose them) and tell everyone about the time you spotted Leave Britney Alone Guy enjoying cocktails in his adoptive homeland.

In today's episode: Laurence Fishburne; Mark Ruffalo; Marg Helgenberger and LeBron James; Victoria Beckham; Pierce Brosnan, Hayden Panettiere, and the Victoria's Secret Angels; Adrian Grenier; Eric Idle; Neil Patrick Harris, Laura Cerón, and Geoffrey Owens; Robert Zemeckis and Roger Avary; Ben Silverman; Morgan Spurlock; Mark Curry; Erin Daniels and Katherine Moennig.

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sightings

Hollywood PrivacyWatch: Ben Stiller Drops Ben Harper A Soul Brother Handshake In Brentwood

PrivacyWatch celebrity sightings are submitted by our readers, and are posted several times a week, so send them in like you mean it. Submit yours to tips[AT]defamer.com (please put "sighting" or "PrivacyWatch" in the subject line) and let everyone know about the most recent time you spotted Tony Hale purchasing a DVD of his own work: More »

mark ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo Not Offering Jake Gyllenhaal A Shoulder To Cry On

Fans of delicate, dreamy-eyed thespian Jake Gyllenhaal may reflexively wince in sympathy as we ask them to recall his harrowing description of the abusive conditions in which Zodiac sadist David Fincher forced his cast to toil, an experience that's left the actor with a paralyzing fear of his MacBook's "delete" key that may require years of intensive psychotherapy (involving the calming, self-negating act of continuously erasing the name "Jake" from an open Word document while discussing a performer's obligation to serve a director's vision) to cure. Curious about how accurate Gyllenhaal's account of his Zodiac ordeal may have been, The Reeler blog asked fellow Fincher plaything Mark Ruffalo about how their cinematic taskmaster ran his set: More »

pamela anderson

Hollywood PrivacyWatch: Some Holiday Cheer With Elvis's Special Ladies

PrivacyWatch celebrity sightings are submitted by our readers, so send them in often: Baby Jesus implores you! Submit yours to tips[AT]defamer.com (please put "sighting" or "PrivacyWatch" in the subject line) and share the thrill of Tom Arnold being your first celebrity sighting despite having lived in Los Angeles for several years. More »

trade roundup

Trade Round-Up: CBS To Stream Shows, Screw Guilds

· CBS announces that it will stream episodes of its shows (at least the ones it fully owns) on its broadband Innertube channel the day after they initially air on the "real" network. The online shows will still be ad-supported, so those looking to destabilize CBS's business model should still watch on DVR and blast through the commercials. [Variety]
Naturally, no plan to use a new platform for the delivery of creative content would be complete without an attempt to fuck the various Guilds in the ass. [Variety]
Fox Searchlight lands Wes Anderson's next project, Dajeerling Limited, which will employ Anderson regulars Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman, and, we hope, trusty safecracker/manservant Kumar Pallana. [THR]
Declining XM and Sirius stock prices have investors saying that the two satellite radio providers should merge, raising the tantalizing possibility that Howard Stern could one day browbeat new co-host Oprah Winfrey into riding the Sybian. [THR]
In what could be an epic brood-off, Focus Features signs up Mark Ruffalo and Joaquin Phoenix to star in the adaptation of the novel Reservation Road, with Ruffalo playing a character who flees the scene after running over Phoenix's son. [Variety]