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Monster-Movie Legend Rick Baker on His Greatest Creations, Including Benicio Del Toro As Wolfman
The Bachelor Contestant Who Quit for Her Job Works at Facebook
Inside Lil Wayne’s Hearing: A Vulture Special Report
Lost’s Michael Emerson on the New, Humbled Ben and Whether He’ll Make It to the End Alive
Mad Men’s John Slattery Slams Michael Gladis’s ‘Dainty, Underachieving’ Beard
Wide World of Oscar
Kidz in the Hall
TV Recap Zone
The Cut Recap: In Which Chado Ralph Rucci Fires Kelly Cutrone
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Leno, who will return to his Tonight Show throne on March 1, hosted his final 10 p.m. Jay Leno Show tonight. It was a pretty bleak affair all around, from the stale Viagra jokes to Ashton Kutcher's mere presence to Leno getting "fired" by guest Donald Trump.
Crowned: Movie stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts will reteam for Universal's Larry Crowne, a film Hanks scripted with Nia Vardalos and will direct about "a man reinventing his life." When your movie stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts we guess your pitch doesn't really need to be any more specific than that. [HR]
Cancer!: So drunk on Twilight money are the execs at Summit Entertainment that they just bought the domestic rights to the Jonathan Levine—directed Seth Rogen—James McAvoy cancer comedy formerly known as I'm With Cancer (the project is now untitled, probably until they think of something less cancer-y). In the Will Reiser—scripted movie, which will also star Anna Kendrick and Bryce Dallas Howard, McAvoy stars a guy who learns he has cancer. Still no word on whether they'll shoot it in 3-D. [HR]
Ellen DeGeneres made her American Idol judging debut tonight, and the early reviews are positive, noting she brought some humor to the proceedings while still managing to be critical/serious when need be (even donning reading glasses!).
The poster for the original film.
If there's anything Hollywood loves more than remakes nowadays, it's 3-D, so it makes perfect sense that there are rumors today of a, yep, 3-D remake of the 1975 classic Jaws. Cinema Blend cites a source at Universal Pictures who says the studio is “strongly considering” remaking the Steven Spielberg flick. But before you go rolling your eyes, the insider says 30 Rock's Tracy Morgan is being considered for the part of marine biologist Matt Hooper (played by Richard Dreyfuss in the original). Hey, if they can get Grizz and Dot Com on screen in 3-D, we’ll be there opening day.
Universal Planning A 3D Remake Of Jaws With Tracy Morgan? [Cinema Blend]
Jay-Z, Kings of Leon, Weezer and The Flaming Lips will headline this year’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, to be held June 11-13 in Manchester, Tennessee. This year’s announcement was perhaps most notable for the way in which it was made, as a new artist was revealed online every five or six minutes throughout the day. And just in case that wasn’t annoying enough for fans, the artist announcements were made on the festival’s MySpace page.
Coachella vs. Bonnaroo: Tennessee fest books Jay-Z, Weezer, Kid Cudi, DMB, more [LAT]
We were waiting for one more solid episode in a row from this season before declaring that HIMYM was back, and … we didn’t quite get it. Not to say that last night’s installment was a waste of time. Yeah, it wasn’t very funny, but it had an almost aggressively weird, slapdash vibe that we’ve never before seen from this show.
Oscar-winning effects legend Rick Baker fell in love with movie-monster makeup at age 10, and never looked back. "I never had a plan B," he tells us. He got his start on little horror films like The Exorcist, made and wore the giant ape suit for 1974's King Kong, created the alien band for Hans Solo's famous bar scene, revolutionized the werewolf transformation in American Werewolf in London, and not only turned Michael Jackson into a were-cat, but played a dancing zombie himself in "Thriller." We asked Baker to talk us through his career, from Videodrometo Benicio del Toro in The Wolfman, opening February 12. "Benicio can open his mouth twice as far as a normal human being," Baker explains. "He looks like he could really take a bite out of you."
Last night, romantics and rose fetishists everywhere were stunned when, at the end of The Bachelor, contestant Ali Fedotowsky withdrew from the running right before the rose ceremony (watch it below). It had come down to choosing between her job (which she “loves”) and Jake the Bachelor (the man she “loves”), and employment won out. What kind of employer could cast such a spell over a person that she would want to dedicate all her time to it, ignoring any chance at meaningful human interaction? No surprise here: Ali works at Facebook.
Today, Deadline's Mike Fleming gives a status update on Paramount's upcoming Mission Impossible 4 (now due Memorial Day 2011). Yes, Tom Cruise will reprise his role as Ethan Hunt and be the movie's focus (contrary to rumors that he'd cede the foreground to another secret agent played by a less crazy actor). And no, producer J.J. Abrams, who helmed the third MI film, will not direct (he's currently accepting applications, though). Directing by proxy is so hot in 2011. [DHD]
Janeane Garofalo is a woman of contradictions: When we last saw the former Air America talk-show host, she was on 24 — the show that likes to debate torture, but always comes down on the side of testicle-zapping. And for the next month, the comedian who proudly admits “I am not a person that is particularly tethered to fashion” is appearing in Nora and Delia Ephron’s clothing-as-Proust’s-madeline play, Love, Loss, and What I Wore at New York’s Westside Theater. But both jobs attracted her for one very important reason: They were offered to her. We talked to the unfailingly honest comedian about Spanx, Botox, and the trouble a 45-year-old former Gen-X symbol can have finding work.
"If I did not have my Spanx on, it’d be like a bunch of water balloons, or a melting candle." 
Last week, Wide World of Oscar gave you the play by play on Gabourey Sidibe’s talk-show technique, analyzing how her perky charm might have won her some Best Actress votes. This week, it’s James Cameron under the microscope. The HMFIC visited Oprah Winfrey to plug Avatar and push his chances for a second Best Director Oscar. How well did he pull off “Fake Laughter” and “Prolonged Clapping?” Were his jokes funny? And did he manage to rein in his rampant megalomania? Watch to find out!
Following today's accusation by the White Stripes that the Air Force Reserve used an unauthorized soundalike version of "Fell In Love With a Girl" in an ad, the AFR has issued the following statement: "The Air Force Reserve, through its advertising agency, hired Fast Forward Music of Salt Lake City to score original music for its commercial. There was never any intention to utilize any existing music or to sound like any music by the band White Stripes or any other musical performer. Any similarity or likeness to any other music is completely unintentional." Then, to underline their point, they blew up the band with missiles. Update: The musician responsible for the track has apologized. [ArtsBeat/NYT]
Actors can make you cry, laugh, or feel. But their talents have limits, and judging from the action at Second Stage Theatre's 23rd Annual All-Star Bowling Classic at Manhattan’s Lucky Strike Lanes and Lounge last night, one of those limits is bowling. "I am beyond bad. I have no form. I have no skills. I’m using a different ball each time," said Chloë Sevigny, who claimed she would really clean up at the fund-raiser if it were either softball (she was a shortstop in high school) or the card game Apples to Apples, of which she is an expert player. Ari Graynor, whose score crawled in the 60s, described herself as "Horrendous with a capital H," but said she made up for her lack of athletic skills by using her schmoozing abilities with her teammates from the finance world (each actor was the captain of a team sponsored by big-buck companies like Goldman Sachs and Blackstone). "I've been drinking Dewar's on the rocks with my new friends in finance, and I've already found out all the gossip about their inter-office romances." When not reviewing his Mad Men co-stars' beards, John Slattery actually bowled a couple of strikes, though, he, too, claimed other skills. "I'm a really good dishwasher loader. I could do that competitively."
Shalhoub: "Actors tend to be too self-involved to be good bowlers."
Lil Wayne is not going to jail! Yet! The rapper, who was expected to begin his one-year Rikers sentence for attempted weapons possession today, was at the New York Supreme Court on Centre Street this afternoon for formal sentencing. Instead, his case was adjourned until next month. The reason? Wayne needs some dental work done before he enters the clink. He’ll be having surgery this week, and after an agreed upon recovery period, will be sentenced March 2.
"He's the D.J., I'm the rapper ... "
“It’s really just me apologizing for being a dickhead,” explains Naledge, the M.C. half of hip-hop duo Kidz in the Hall. We’re being chauffeured up the West Side Highway in a roomy SUV with the group’s new album, Land of Make Believe, blaring out of the car stereo. Double O, the production half of Kidz, is riding shotgun, adjusting bass levels and muting the sound when it’s time to talk. The current track, “Do It All Again,” is a candid one, with Naledge addressing a litany of girls he’s wronged (“Real names,” I’m told), and the UPenn grad is offering a rambling, impassioned explanation as we cruise, touching on his personal failings and the expectations of his parents. It’s unconventional as far as listening sessions go, but effective; we’ve been driving around for over an hour, and the two have barely deviated off message: This is our best, most personal album. This is the one that’ll show people why we’re different.
Multiple sources are reporting that Lars von Trier — the director prone to making female leads hang themselves, sell their bodies in shipyards, and scissor off their privates — let slip in a Danish TV interview that he's cast Penélope Cruz in his next movie, Melancholia, which is being described as both a "psychological drama and a disaster movie." What did she ever do to anybody? [Playlist]
"I'm surprised that it's not a two-hour weekly series as it is, because everybody I know who loves the show watches at least three or four episodes back-to-back. One isn't enough. So why don't we just call it what it is and make it a two-hour show?" —Adrian Grenier on Entourage [MTV]
"It was Brad [Pitt]'s idea for me to be in [Fight Club]. In the six weeks when you're up for an Oscar, there's a little Âwindow where you're offered everything. Seventh week, when you haven't got it, you're fucked. Forget it. So you have to get in there. I was offered so many nice parts, and I went for Fight Club." —Helena Bonham Carter [Guardian UK]
There's a new, longer trailer for Atom Egoyan's upcoming remake of the French thriller Chloe, and it's scary as hell (and also kind of funny!). Julianne Moore plays a wife who suspects her husband (Liam Neeson) of cheating because he laughs maniacally at the computer, so she hires a call girl (Amanda Seyfried, who has crazy eyes down) to try to seduce him, and guess what happens? Amanda Seyfried gives him a hand job in a greenhouse. When she tells Julianne Moore about it, Julianne is like, "I didn't ask you to do that." And then Amanda Seyfried turns out to be crazy and refuses to stop seeing Liam Neeson and ends up in Julianne's office and home and does something to Julianne's neck with a sharp object and sexual overtones. It's a total throwback to the wonderful trashy thrillers of the eighties and nineties (we miss you Adrian Lyne, come back!). Basically, it's going to be the best movie of the year and "This business transaction is over!" is going to be 2010's "I drink your milkshake." So get ready!
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Janeane Garofalo on Botox, Spanx, and Finding Work
Ajami: “thoroughly polarized and amazingly un-polarizing.”
Falco and Lansbury at Drama League Gala
Laura Linney at Time Stands Still
The Twilight Stars at the CK & L.A.N.D. Event
Taylor Swift Talks Grammys at Evening Gala
Whitfield and Russell at Extraordinary Measures
