It’s looking more and more like “magical” Suri Cruise runs her household. Not even four years old, Suri has decided that she needs to be an actress. Probably to one-up her parents, right? This all came about because Suri loves her dance classes, and she aske Katie Holmes if she (Suri) could begin acting and taking acting lessons. Of course this all comes from the British Star Magazine (which is as reliable as the American Star Magazine) but I don’t doubt that Suri has a career planned in front of the camera. She’s already started, really. Her life is a performance!

Suri Cruise is without a doubt one of the most adorable kids in Hollywood. Suri has been entertaining us all since the day her famous parents showed her off to the public so it does not surprise us when she already knows what she wants to do when she grows up.

Suri wants to be an actress and her parents couldn’t be more thrilled.

A source told Britain’s Star magazine: “Suri loves her dance classes so much that when she started asking her mom to act, Katie couldn’t say no.”

Tom had previously admitted that he would love for his daughter to get into acting. He said: “I’d love it. I’d love it! Acting is… a great life, to get to entertain people and create characters and stories.”

When we see pics of Suri, she looks like she has so much character so we’re sure she is going to be a great actress.

[From Hollyscoop]

I wonder what it would be like if Suri actually got some acting gigs. Part of me really does think that Tom in particular has been grooming Suri for exactly that. It also makes me wonder if Suri will take after her dad as far as his hit-or-miss acting talent. Cruise has done good work in several films – notably, Magnolia (one of my favorites). But how can you teach that to a little girl?

You know what I was thinking about last night? That interview Bronson Pinchot did back in October, where Pinchot talking about what Tom Cruise was like at the beginning of his career. Pinchot told The AV Club that Cruise was “the biggest bore on the face of the Earth.” Pinchot also claimed that Cruise was “tense and made constant, constant unrelated homophobic comments, like, ‘You want some ice cream, in case there are no gay people there?’ I mean, his lingo was larded with the most… There was no basis for it. It was like, ‘It’s a nice day, I’m glad there are no gay people standing here.’ Very, very strange.” What will Suri be like on set?

Suri with her mom in NY on November 24, 2009 and November 22, 2009. Credit: Pacific Coast News.

Mo’Nique, fresh from her Golden Globe nomination and SAG award nomination for her searing performance in the film “Precious,” says that the breakthrough role has done more than put her on the map as a serious actress. The preparation and character study she did in order to convincingly play the part of Precious’ abusive mother made her confront and ultimately understand the abuse she suffered as a child, at the hands of her own brother. Mo’Nique says she now forgives her brother for molesting her and hopes he will get help.

Mo’Nique is going through a very public forgiveness in her new movie Precious – a performance that was not easy but has earned her a Golden Globe nomination.

“I know Mary Jones. I know that monster,” Mo’Nique told Joy Behar on her show Tuesday night of her character, a mentally ill, abusive mother. “That character for me, in my life, was my older brother.”

The actress, 42, revealed in 2008 to Essence that she was sexually molested at 7 years old by her teenage brother. “I didn’t tell my parents until I was 15-years-old. [Unlike Precious] I had my family, but when you go through that as a child, you really don’t know which way to turn,” she said.

Although she opened up to her parents as a teen, Mo’Nique, who has not spoken to her brother in years, said she didn’t really confront her past until she was an adult. “I’m angry. I’m mad. I’m hurt. I’m crying, but doing this movie made me say, ‘You know what? I forgive.’ I forgive and I wish he would get the help that he needs, so no one else will go through it,” she said.

She adds: “Understanding Mary Jones in her sickness really made me understand my brother in his sickness. Not all molesters are bad people. We want to make them these monsters. It’s a sickness and if we address it as a sickness and try to get help, so many of us wouldn’t have a story to tell.”

[From People]

Mo’Nique has said in other interviews that there were times during the shoot of the film when she wasn’t sure if she could go through with some of the things she was asked to do as part of the character. I’m sure she’s happy she pushed herself through it now, because she’s one of the favorites for the Supporting Actress category at the Golden Globes and even a contender for an Oscar nomination. It can’t be easy to play a role like this, especially when you have your own abuse story in real life. But in this instance, it helped her.

Mo’Nique at the AFI Film Festival premiere of ‘Precious’ on November 1, 2009. Also, two promotional images from ‘Precious’ with Mo’Nique in character. Credit: WENN.

Victoria Beckham is eying a part in the next “Sex & the City” movie. Apparently she was offered a small role in the first film but had to pass, as filming conflicted with the Spice Girls’ world tour. This time around she’s totally free, and apparently dying for a role. So much so that she’s taking acting lessons, even though it sounds like she’s only being considered for something very small.

Victoria Beckham is a pro when it comes to posing in front of the cameras. But doing anything other than placing her hand on her ever-shrinking hip and pouting her lips may be problem. This may be the reason why the pin-thin fashion plate is reportedly taking acting lessons in hopes of landing a cameo role in the “Sex and the City” sequel, the Daily Mail reports.
Due to her busy rehearsal schedule for the Spice Girls’ reunion tour in 2007, Posh turned down a walk-on role in the first fashion-obsessed film. However, producers are reportedly eager to cast the 35-year-old fashionista alongside the film’s four main females in the next movie.

“She really wanted to be in the last movie but wasn’t able to take part because of her commitments with the Spice Girls,” a source said. “This time she’s keen to take part.”

Posh first dabbled with acting in the 1997 flick “Spice World” and again on the small screen in a 2007 episode of “Ugly Betty.” Given that her only experience thus far has been playing herself, Posh may need to brush up on her acting skills before sharing the big screen with the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall.

[From the Daily News]

My only memory of “Spice World” was that it involved Geri Halliwell driving a double-decker bus around London along with a lot of ridiculous platform shoes and a lot of falling down physical comedy. I still don’t understand why it wasn’t nominated for any decent awards. Despite her lack of a fleshed-out acting resume, Posh would probably be a natural, simply due to her love of fashion. If they got her in the right part and right scenes, she might barely have to act. She could be a New York version of herself, which just involves an accent.

And while some might tease that she needs to take acting classes, that’s a lot better than all those celebs that don’t realize they need to take them. Posh doesn’t do a lot of singing anymore – perhaps she’s hoping to eventually focus on acting full-time.

Here’s Victoria in a very Carrie Bradshaw-esq outfit, arriving at Wembley Stadium carrying an Hermes handbag on June 10th. Images thanks to WENN.com .

The Screen Actors Guild is having its 120,000 members vote in January on whether they’ll strike. The reason they’re striking is similar to the writers’ strike last year – members feel they should get more compensation for internet broadcasts. In this case there appears to be clear dissent among members as whether they should strike.

More than 130 Hollywood stars including Oscar winners George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Charlize Theron, Morgan Freeman and Sally Field, joined on Monday in opposing a strike authorization vote by the Screen Actors Guild.

The A-list performers registered their opposition in a letter that circulated on the Internet as union leaders, including SAG President Alan Rosenberg, met in New York City with rank-and-file members to seek support for a strike authorization.

The letter marked the latest sign of sharp divisions within the 120,000-member union over tactics employed by Rosenberg and his allies to squeeze a better contract offer from major studios, especially for pay from work put on the Internet.

A smaller group of stars including Mel Gibson and Martin Sheen on Friday voiced support for a strike vote, while board members from SAG’s New York division came out against it.

[From Reuters]

A-list, even B-list actors are less likely to be affected by the poor contracts given to actors who are working for productions that are broadcast over the Internet. But the actors who oppose the strike vote have a very clearly directed opposition to the “threat” of a strike used as a tool to get the studios to negotiate.

“We feel very strongly that SAG members should not vote to authorize a strike at this time,” Monday’s letter stated. “We don’t think that an authorization can be looked at as merely a bargaining tool. It must be looked at as what it is — an agreement to strike if negotiations fail.”

Citing worsening economic conditions, the letter urged SAG leaders to accept as “an imperfect agreement” the studios’ latest contract proposal and to join with other Hollywood unions three years from now in pressing for better terms then.

The industry is still recovering from a 14-week strike by screenwriters that ended in February, after idling thousands of production workers and costing the local economy an estimated $3 billion.

The letter, addressed to SAG board members, officers and staff, was signed by 134 prominent film and television actors, including numerous Oscar winners and nominees.

On Friday, the governing board of SAG’s New York branch also issued a statement urging the union’s national leadership to call off its strike authorization vote, saying widespread layoffs and cutbacks had altered the labor landscape.

[From Reuters]

A strike at this point in the economy could devastate actors who are already struggling. Where the reasoning is just as valid as the screenwriter’s strike in early 2008, now is just not the economic climate to be demanding more money and potentially putting thousands of working actors on the unemployment rosters. A person should get paid fairly for the work they do, but there are precious few people who would give up a paycheck in exchange for negotiations that may or may not succeed in getting them a few extra dollars later.

Some of the actors supporting a strike are Mel Gibson, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter and Martin Sheen, as well as SAG President Alan Rosenberg.

Spiderman actor James Franco says that being homeless isn’t all that hard. He made $20 in 30 minutes, he claims, researching a role in a movie.

The actor played a homeless drug addict in Robert De Niro movie City By The Sea and decided to live rough to prepare for the vagrant role.

And Franco admits it wasn’t that tough: “I stayed a whole weekend on the street, we panhandled, we made a sign.

“We made at least $20 in half an hour, so, if you’re ever out of work… make a sign – `Homeless, Please Help’.”

Contact Music

This sounds like those people that claim the homeless just do it for fun, and they’ve got thousands stuffed in a mattress at home. I worked night shift in the city and the people who are sleeping in shop doorways in the middle of winter aren’t finding it easy. The older men who live on the streets probably don’t find it as easy to panhandle as someone who is young, that good Samaritans probably assume is just temporarily out of luck. A professional actor should be able to invoke sympathy from passers by a lot more effectively than the genuinely homeless who lack those skills.

This has made me so annoyed, at a time when the economy is making people fear for their jobs that don’t pay exorbitant amounts of money. I’ll share this tidbit about James Franco too – not only is he a panhandling faker, but he also wears a prosthetic penis for his role in Mayor Harvey Milk. He’s all man right up until you get to the rubber, folks.

Photos are stills from City By The Sea thanks to AllMoviePhoto

A few weeks ago, while in Las Vegas on a business trip, I got roped into seeing the stage musical “Mamma Mia,” featuring the music of 70′s pop band ABBA, by some Indian businessmen with whom I was traveling. I was not expecting much. However, I admit that by the end of the production, I discovered that I had enjoyed myself. A few weeks later I learned that “Mamma Mia” is being made into a movie musical, starring none other than Meryl Streep. I never even knew she could sing! Early reports confirm that Streep, who just turned 58, gives a powerhouse performance in the film- complete with singing, dancing, and even full splits.

Filmed last summer in Pinewood Studios and on location on the picturesque island of Skopelos in Greece, the movie version is a glorious and deeply silly confection.

Reports from early test screenings are universally positive – the audiences who have seen it at a secret showing in San Diego came out raving about the transfer of the musical to the big screen.

The surprise?

That Meryl Streep, at 58, is athletic, has a big voice – clear, true and strong – and delivers the goods on Abba’s classics without a trace of embarrassment. It is, obviously, her first musical, and the deep thinkers in Hollywood are amazed by the way she is apparently happy to demolish her reputation as a serious-minded Oscar-winning grande dame.

And yet Streep, who is known for her hard-to-live-with perfectionism and love of tricky bits of acting technique and odd accents, emerges from this film as a woman who is accomplished at physical comedy and actually funny when the occasion demands.

‘Meryl is very good – it’s a revelation,’ says one who has seen the film, in which she plays Donna, the mother of a bride-to-be who is confronted by three potential fathers on the eve of her nuptials.

It transpires that Streep saw the stage show in New York with her daughter as a birthday treat and wrote a fan letter to the producers afterwards.

[From The Huffington Post]

I don’t know if “surprise” is really the right word to describe her work in this movie. After all, Streep is one of the finest actors of her generation. I think she could pretty much do anything she sets her mind to on film. In “Angels in America,” the HBO miniseries, Streep played everything from Ethel Rosenberg to a Jewish rabbi. She’s also playing Julia Child in the upcoming biopic. Hopefully people will give “Mamma Mia” a fair shot, even if it stars women over 35 and doesn’t feature CGI monsters. Hey, if “Sex and the City” can bring in audiences, maybe Meryl can too.

Lindsay Lohan was supposedly the model of a well-prepared actress on the set of ABC’s “Ugly Betty,” according to sources. Instead of reverting to her diva days of ditching rehearsals and blowing off shoots, Blohan actually reported to the set of the TV show early, and ready to work. That’s probably because this guest star gig the only decent acting work she can get, besides and unnamed movie co-starring Jack Black about dueling Renaissance Faire employees.

Gone are the days of being late to the set!

Lindsay Lohan – who began shooting her spot on ABC’s Ugly Betty on Saturday – continues to earn rave reviews from the show’s cast and crew.

“She was terrific – a pleasure,” Ugly Betty creator Silvio Horta tells Usmagazine.com. “She came in early and was very pleasant.”

Lohan plays Kimberly, “a queen bee girl who Betty went to high school with,” Horta says.

Lohan first appears on the May 22 season finale “in a flashback” dodge ball game, Horta says.

“Kimberly is doing the picking,” Horta says, “and it doesn’t turn out well for Betty.”

(She’s one of the last to be picked!)

Horta says Lohan will return for five episodes next season.

“They’re going to run into each other,” he says of the two characters. “Kimberly’s life has taken a turn for the worst.”

[From Us Weekly]

Hmmm. A character who was once super popular, but not a very nice person, who has fallen on some hard times- not too much of a stretch for our young rehab vet, is it? I’m sure Blohan is hoping that this guest stint will do for her career what Britney Spears’ appearance on “How I Met Your Mother” did. Trouble is, there is a lot more animosity and a lot less sympathy for Blohan’s self induced career tank than for Britney’s. And besides, does anyone even watch “Ugly Betty” anymore?

Lindsay Lohan is shown at the Launch of the Scarlet HD TV Series on 4/28/08, thanks to PRPhotos.

Once in a while, some celebrity comes up with some really great but really obvious idea. Okay rarely does that actually happen. But there certainly are a few exceptionally entrepreneurial celebs out there – and Sean “Puffy” Combs is one of the biggest. Puffy was on Jimmy Kimmel’s show the night, and said he’s starting a chauffeur service for drunken celebrities, to keep them off the road. It’s hard to tell if he’s joking or not – Kimmel seems to think he’s teasing, but Puffy seems to be talking seriously. He stole my idea, but whatever. If it keeps Lindsay Lohan off the streets, I’m fine with it.

As he mentioned in the clip, P-whatever-name-he’s-calling-himself got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yesterday, and told people that he’s ready to make his way into acting.

“I think that it’s important for me to mature and evolve as an artist,” Combs tells PEOPLE at the From Harlem to Hollywood! ceremony honoring his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “I’m trying to get my Black Bruce Willis on.”

Despite being accustomed to A-list treatment, he’s looking forward to starting at the bottom of the acting totem pole. “I’m trying to get Michael Bay to shoot me, have a hot soundtrack,” Combs said, “But I also realize I have a lot of work to do as an actor and I gotta prove myself.”

[From People]

I think “I’m trying to get my Black Bruce Willis on” is one of the single greatest quotes I’ve heard in months. Say what you want about the guy, he’s the personification of the entrepreneurial spirit. And pretty soon, he may be saving lives – and dozens of celebrities from jail time. Except for Screech. But I think we’re all okay with that.

I’ve been dying to see the new movie ’21,’ which tells the story of some super-smart MIT math nerds who make big bucks counting cards in Las Vegas. I read the book it’s based on, “Bringing Down the House,” and the film stars one of my favorite new actors, Jim Sturgess, who was fantastic in “Across the Universe.” Now, Kate Bosworth, who co-stars in the film as Jim Sturgess’ love interest, reveals how they prepared to do a steamy love scene- they got hammered.

The 25-year-old actress cannot recall shooting her love scene with Jim Sturgess for 21, she told PEOPLE at Wednesday’s Cinema Society and Calvin Klein Jeans-sponsored screening of the film in Manhattan.

“We were both so drunk,” the Superman Returns star said. “Jim and I became such good friends, we decided to have a couple of drinks, loosen up and go for it.”

Sturgess – who plays the lead in the shot-on-location casino flick, based on Ben Mezrich’s book, Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions – has similarly fuzzy recollections.

“We were on Grey Goose, I think,” said the British actor. “It was brilliant for about half and an hour. As we continued to drink … it just became sloppy and messy. I couldn’t stand up at one point.”

[From People]

I always wondered how actors got through these loves scenes- now it makes perfect sense. From what I’ve read, shooting these kinds of scenes are no picnic- there you are, often buck naked with someone you barely know, while an entire film crew is standing around talking and telling you what to do. Then again, Jim Sturgess is adorable, and I know many women who’d happily brave all that discomfort for the chance to smooch him. If you haven’t seen him yet in “Across the Universe,” do yourself a favor and rent it.

Kate Bosworth is shown after having lunch with friends on 3/30/08, thanks to Splash News. I find her outfit kind of fascinating and can’t decide if I like it or not.

This story nearly made me cry. As Broadway producers struggle to make their productions more relevant (read: profitable), hiring movie stars and B-list celebs to star in theatrical shows has become the big new trend. Monty Python’s Spamalot has used this trick with great effect, with such people as David Hyde Pierce, Sara Ramirez, and more recently, Clay Aiken. But now, I think Broadway is just going too far. Kevin Federline may take a role in the hit musical “Legally Blonde,” a musical version of the hit movie starring Reese Witherspoon.

Curtains for Kevin Federline!

A source says Britney Spears’ ex, 30, may be heading to NYC in September to make his Broadway debut in Legally Blonde, the Tony-nominated musical adaptation of the hit film, Us Weekly reports in its latest issue, on newsstands now.

“He’s so excited!” a Federline source tells Us.

The former backup dancer and aspiring hip-hop artist — who is hitting the gym after packing on “daddy weight,” ex Shar Jackson says — will test his song-and-dance chops in a trio of roles — including the UPS guy who inspires the “bend and snap.”

“This is his chance to show the world what he can do,” says a pal.

And now that he has physical custody, sons Sean, 2, and Jayden, 18 months, might join him in the Big Apple.

“This is his dream and he wants to bring the kids,” says the insider. “Jamie and Lynne [Spears] promised to help him make it work.”

(A rep for the show says he is not scheduled “as of this time.”)

Federline may not be the only star hitting Broadway: New mom Nicole Richie has been approached to star in Chicago.

[From Us Weekly]

After seeing K-Fed douche up the small screen on “One Tree Hill,” I really hope this story is somebody’s idea of a sick joke. This guy has no business being on a Broadway stage– except maybe to sweep up after the show is over. As someone who is a self-professed theater geek, this is highly distressing. I’m sure there are hundreds of real, trained professional actors currently waiting tables in NYC who are very upset at this news.

Still, it’s nice that K-Fed is trying to get work that doesn’t involve rapping or beatboxing.