Photo: Photo: Getty Images

Emma Watson and Rupert Grint may have momentarily distracted the world by flashing their underwear and contracting swine flu (respectively), but at Thursday's New York premiere for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Daniel Radcliffe was on an impressive charm offensive that made it clear which of the three is still going to be making bank when he's fifty. We watched as he moved down the carpet, joking about his height, laughing at the sexual tension and drug-use allusions in the film, and gamely imagining who would win a battle between wizards and vampires ("Wizards! Vampires have to get near a wizard to kill him and we’d be able to keep our distance"). And he certainly got on our good side by telling us he wants to be back on Broadway in two or three years and is even taking tap lessons to get ready ("So far it's just a bit of shuffling... If I do a musical I want to be proper! Tap dance is so cool!"). But it was his completely adorable interaction with a terrified 11-year-old reporter from Scholastic News that won us over for good. Imagine half a dozen pushy TV reporters shoving their mikes in Radcliffe's face as he zeroes in on a little girl holding her microphone with both hands, voice shaking so much she can hardly form sentences.

This week, Brüno told us jokes, got us drunk, and helped us love America again. Michael Jackson was mourned by us and others (but not Justin Timberlake or Nancy Pelosi). Also, he saved the music business, danced in a car, and was possibly the victim of foul play. What else happened?

Photo: Wire Image

According to Sasha Frere-Jones, "The summer jam of 2009 was determined at 2:26 P.M. P.D.T., June 25th. For the next two months, we will either be hearing Michael Jackson, avoiding Michael Jackson, or otherwise processing the symbiotic wind of data, rumor, sound, and news that is now 'Michael Jackson.'" While we respectfully disagree — not even the death of a deeply fascinating, back-seat grooving, once-in-a-lifetime pop icon will make us stop rocking “Best I Ever Had” ad nauseum — we do have to acknowledge that MJ’s passing has fundamentally altered the 2009 Song of the Summer field: you don’t need us to point out that the last few weeks have seen one giant, collective, head-first dive back into the man’s impressive catalog.

With that in mind, this week’s Power Rankings take a break from today's hits to go deep into the crevices of said catalog, tracking the best and most curious MJ oddities, rarities, covers, remixes, bonus tracks, tribute mixtapes, and more. As always, let us know what we've missed.

Photo: Courtesy of 20th Century Fox, Hasbro

We know that it's Friday afternoon and your brain wants nothing more than for you to begin drowning it in Moscow Mules, but we thought we'd offer this up to those of suckers like us who are still sitting around an office somewhere stone-cold sober (not you, Artie Lange). Anyway, one of these two pictures is an illustration of the newly designed, top-secret Destro mask from a G.I. Joe toy that's going to be on display at Comic-Con, and the other is a first look at the stop-motion animated star of Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox (which, truth be told, is kind of giving us Conker's Bad Fur Day flashbacks). We'll leave it up to you to guess which is which!

First Pic from Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Revealed! [Flavorwire]
GI Joe Movie Destro Mask Really Revealed? [UGO]

“Maybe all the theaters will burn down before people get a chance to see it.” Her film may be opening today, but Lynn Shelton is still keeping her expectations low — which must come as a surprise to anyone who has been following the fortunes of the director’s Sundance phenomenon Humpday, a stupefyingly funny and amazingly poignant super-low-budget comedy about two straight best friends (Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard) who decide to make an amateur gay porn film together. But Shelton is a far cry from your starry-eyed overnight film-festival success. A forty-something mother with a background in experimental film, the Seattle-based Shelton has been following her voice and making decidedly independent videos and films for over a decade now, garnering numerous awards along the way. But Humpday has been a buzz title ever since its first rapturous screenings at this year’s Sundance, and Hollywood has come calling. Our hope is that her pile-on of good luck continues when American audiences finally begin to discover Humpday this weekend. Provided, yes, that all the theaters don’t burn down first.

Photo-illustration: Everett Bogue; Photos: Getty
Images, Courtesy of DC Comics

Ain't It Cool News reported it as rumor yesterday, and now The Hollywood Reporter confirms it: Dick-gifting pop star Justin Timberlake is on the short list of actors being considered by Warner Bros. to play Hal Jordan in next December's Green Lantern movie (also up for the part: Ryan Reynolds and Bradley Cooper). THR says the studio let its holding deal with the trio expire on Monday, which means they're free to accept other acting offers, and also probably that WB is as enthusiastic about these three options as we are. So far, the geek reaction to JT's potential casting has been predictably negative, but we'll give him credit — his acting was not the worst part of The Love Guru, Southland Tales, or Black Snake Moan.

'Green Lantern' has three in ring [THR]

JT to get a charge from the GREEN LANTERN? [AICN]

Photo-illustration: Everett Bogue; Photos:Getty
Images, istockphoto

New Beaver: First it was Steve Carell, then it was Jim Carrey, and now it's Mel Gibson attached to star in The Beaver, the comedy from Black List–topping screenwriter Kyle Killen (see our review of the script here). Gibson will play a depressed toy-company CEO who starts communicating with, and through, a beaver puppet he wears on his hand with Jodie Foster — pardon us, The Beaver director Jodie Foster — playing his wife. Sounds weird, we know, but the last time we saw Gibson and Foster work together was Maverick, and that turned out pretty goddamned well for everybody. [Variety]

Queen Bee: Nicole Kidman will produce and star in Little Bee, an adaptation of the Chris Cleave novel. The book revolves around an incident on an African beach, in which a 16-year-old Nigerian orphan named Little Bee runs into a vacationing British couple who have wandered off the grounds of their resort. Smart money is that Kidman will play the wife in the couple, but here's hoping Kidman will do some range-flexing as the title character. [Variety]