I never got around to seeing Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man, although I heard good things about this current franchise reboot, and the first film made money. It made so much money that they’re currently working on a sequel, of course. Jamie Foxx plays Spider-Man’s new nemesis, Max Dillon/Electro. These are some photos of Foxx in character as Electro, taken in Times Square late Monday night.

I barely followed the casting controversy for this role – I guess in the comic books, Electro was originally a white dude and now they’ve cast Jamie Foxx in the role. As it turns out, people don’t care that much, maybe because Jamie’s skin is glowing blue and no one feels like being racist against blue people. According to the Spider-Man mythology, Maxwell Dillon was an engineer fixing a power line when he was struck by lightning. The lightning gave him a super-power: the ability to control electricity. In the 21st century, shouldn’t we have an evil villain who can control… dun dun dun… nano-technology?!?!

In all seriousness, I think this is an interesting career move for Foxx, whose career kind of stumbled a bit after his Oscar-winning turn in Ray. Jamie has done interesting work over the past decade, but he’s not the most consistent actor, and before now he’s never seemed to show any interest in the comic book stuff. Anyway, enjoy these photos while you can. You won’t actually get to see Blue Jamie in the theater until summer 2014.

Photos courtesy of PacificCoastNews.com and WENN.com.

Will Smith must be starting early promotional duties for his upcoming June movie, After Earth, which also co-stars his real-life son, Jaden, as his son in the movie. Oh noooooo. I only just realized that this film is both directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan, who is entirely hit and miss as a filmmaker. Mostly miss. In other words, I’m not seeing any reason that I’ll voluntarily run out and see this movie in theaters, and unless reviews are really solid, it won’t appear on my Netflix queue either. Oh well.

Entertainment Weekly recently grabbed a quick chat with Will, and they must have asked him about Django Unchained. During that movie’s early casting buzz, Will was rumored to be Quentin Tarantino’s first pick for the titular role. Big Willy says that he turned QT down because he only does lead roles. Like, the Django role wasn’t big enough for him (***SPOILER ALERT**** below). Say what?

When Quentin Tarantino’s western revenge-fantasy Django Unchained was first announced, casting rumors pegged Will Smith as the titular slave-turned-vigilante. But Smith, who teams with his son Jaden in this summer’s sci-fi epic After Earth, tells EW that he turned down the part because his character would’ve been second fiddle to the bounty hunter (played by Christoph Waltz) who teaches Django his trade. “Django wasn’t the lead, so it was like, I need to be the lead. The other character was the lead!” says the Men in Black star, whose departure opened the door for Jamie Foxx to play the role.

Smith says that before he left the project, he even pleaded with Tarantino to let Django have a more central role in the story. “I was like, ‘No, Quentin, please, I need to kill the bad guy!’” (Ironically, Waltz was considered a supporting actor during his Oscar-winning award season, while Jamie Foxx was promoted as the movie’s lead.)

But no hard feelings: Smith was a big fan of the final product. “I thought it was brilliant,” he says. “Just not for me.”

[From EW.com]

Oh, who cares if Django didn’t kill the bad guy? He got to kill nearly every other bad guy in that movie! Will’s just making excuses, really. His ego won’t let him play any role that doesn’t absolutely dominate every moment of a movie, and I’m glad he turned down the Django part because Jamie Foxx killed it, and furthermore, I can’t ever take Will seriously when he tries to play “serious” in movies.

I bet there’s more than just ego to Will’s rationale of turning down this plum part. He probably couldn’t handle going up against the sheer talent of Christoph Waltz. Like, it’s not that Christoph’s role would have overshadowed Will’s role in and of itself — but Will would have seemed ridiculous trying to act next to Christoph, and Will probably knows that, but he’d never admit it.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and AllMoviePhoto

Kerry Washington hasn’t really been bringing her style game in this European tour for Django Unchained, right? The poor girl has worn a ruffled nightmare and then followed up with a cutesy/boob-cup combination that was like a triple gut punch to fashion lovers and even the most casual bystander. Although I thought the J. Mendel print dress she wore in Germany was slightly improved, most of you did not agree.

Now Kerry has travelled to the UK premiere and donned a milky white (and grey) Giles gown with Christian Louboutin shoes. As a red carpet dress, this is a little bit fussy but much preferable to the other outfits she’s been wearing to promote this movie. You can’t see the horse print very well in these photos, but it’s more visible in the runway version if you’re curious how it looks in better lighting. I really like the idea behind the fitted bodice atop a poufy skirt with this print — sort of like Kerry is riding in on a white horse, and it goes with the “rescue” theme of the movie quite well. Her makeup appears quite beautiful here, and the romantic, wavy hair really completes the look. This is the best she’s looked during this European tour.

Kerry also took some time to pose with Samuel L. Jackson and Jamie Foxx. I am certain that Sam has worn this entire outfit before on a red carpet, and he’s not even trying to look spiffy. As for Jamie, the purple suit isn’t awful (it’s at least interesting), but the sky blue shirt underneath makes me want to go colorblind.

Christoph Waltz was there, of course! His tie is wacky, but he’s so cute.

Finally, here is Quentin Tarantino himself. This movie will probably end up outgrossing all of his other cinematic efforts, and I really do think QT got robbed by not receiving a Best Director Oscar nomination, but he’ll be fine. This movie really speaks for itself. I’ve seen it twice, and I absolutely loved it.

Photos courtesy of WENN

Oh, where to begin on this topic. Nothing I could ever say would be adequate or add in any meaningful way to the discussion of the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday. I think most of us can willingly admit to shedding more than a few tears in regard to the 20 children and 6 adults who lost their lives at the hands of a sick gunman (whom I refuse to dignify by typing his name), and the tragedy has also stirred up a massive political debate in regards to the readily available access to firearms in this country as well as mental health issues. To state the obvious, there are no easy answers here as to why this happened, and I think the best thing to do is to continue to honor the victims instead of immediately falling into a left-right hate debate. That’s easier said than done, I know.

The day after the shootings, a press junket was held for Django Unchained, which is (of course) Quentin Tarantino’s revenge movie on the subject of black slavery in the United States. Naturally, the subject of the Sandy Hook massacre came up, and Quentin stated his opinion that violence in film has absolutely nothing to do with anything that happens in real life. Django himself, Jamie Foxx, respectfully disagrees with QT’s opinion. Here are the details:

Don’t blame Quentin Tarantino for Friday’s tragic Newtown, Conn., shooting.

The Django Unchained director is tired of having to defend his use of violence in film.

“I just think, you know, there’s violence in the world, tragedies happen, blame the playmakers,” he said Saturday at a press junket, per the BBC. “It’s a Western. Give me a break.”

Django Unchained star Jamie Foxx, however, disagrees with Tarantino. “We cannot turn our back and say that violence in films or anything that we do doesn’t have a sort of influence,” the actor said. “It does.”

Christoph Waltz, another actor in the flick, said that the “media’s responsibility is greater than the storyteller is because… Django is violent, but it’s not inspiring violence.”

Kerry Washington added, “I do think that it’s important when we have the opportunity to talk about violence and not just kind of have it as entertainment, but connect it to the wrongs, the injustices, the social ills.”

[From E! Online]

Okay, Tarantino sounds a little punchy here because he probably went into the junket wary of precisely this type of question. Yes, he was asked to defend his work in the context of last Friday’s tragedy, and it must have been a very uncomfortable situation for him to withstand such scrutiny. What QT says does make some sense even if he didn’t exactly phrase his answer in the most sensitive way. I mean, I grew up on violent films, and I remember the height of HBO when Commando, Terminator, and the Death Wish movies would essentially play on repeat during the entirety of summer vacation, and my parents let me freely watch this stuff. Lots of other people my age grew up the same way, and the vast majority of us are (mostly) well-adjusted adults now.

Certainly, the argument can be made that violence in movies (as well as music, video games, etc.) can influence unstable minds and provoke them to imitation. Right now, all thoughts should be with the victims of the shooting as well as their suffering families. Throughout the media and social media outlets, however, so many people are quick to point the blame at something, anything, that could possibly be held accountable for one sick man’s actions. Personally, I’d like to hold his mother responsible for at least providing the weapons used for mass slaughter, but that’s kind of a no-brainer at this point. Overall, it’s just a terribly sad situation with no easy solution for future preventative measures coming anytime soon.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN

Three of the main players of Django Unchained — Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Jamie Foxx — cover the December issue of Vibe magazine to discuss the upcoming (and already controversial) movie directed by Quentin Tarantino. This, of course, follows Leo’s rather bland statements (excepting the ones that concerned phrenology) on the movie from this week’s discussion of Leo’s “intense” face on the cover of next month’s Details issue. I will admit to being an exceptionally rabid fan of Quentin Tarantino’s movies, but something about the Django trailer rubbed me the wrong way. Sure, the movie seems to have QT’s usual revenge motif going on in a huge manner, but the movie (especially Leo) just seemed so campy. Now Vibe describes Leo as “the most revered actor of our time” (who, incidentally, smokes electronic ciggies), and the trio pictured on the cover have given a joint interview. Here are some excerpts:

Leo on tackling Django: “I wanted to go in there and try to embody somebody and an attitude that is so foreign to me and go the distance. I think it took me to places I didn’t even imagine. It really took on a life of its own. We knew there was going to be controversy. The question is: What is not a realistic depiction? I would argue that it is. It is Quentin’s re-creation; this character doesn’t exist. There’s nobody that is documented to do what Jamie’s character has done at the time. But the documentaries I saw went even further.”

Jamie’s response to Leo: “Put it this way: I completely understand what you’re saying. ‘Cause as black folks we’re always sensitive. As a black person it’s always racial. I come into this place to do a photo shoot and they got Ritz crackers and cheese. I’ll be like, ain’t this a bitch. Y’all didn’t know black people was coming. What’s with all this white sh-t? By the same token, if there is fried chicken and watermelon I’ll say ain’t this a bitch? So, no matter what we do as black people it’s always gonna be that. Every single thing in my life is built around race. I don’t necessarily speak it because you can’t.”

Jamie on Tyler Perry’s thoughts: “When you’re talking about the script, of course it’s going to be controversy. I remember talking to Tyler Perry about it. [In Perry's very serious voice] ‘Ah man, the script, man. Have you read it?’ When I finally read it, I called Tyler and we had a conversation. I said, ‘I got a different take on it than you did.’ And we shared. And I called Tyler while we were shooting it. I said, ‘Do you know that Quentin Tarantino knows all of your sh-t on TV. I don’t even watch all of your shit.’ He said, ‘Really?’ The difference is the Quentin Tarantino Effect. I ran into Spike Lee at the BET Awards. You know Spike, he’ll let you have it whether it’s good, bad or ugly. And he said, ‘I’m not going to say anything bad about this film. It looks like y’all are getting it.’”

Kerry on her research process: “This is not a doc. This is a Quentin Tarantino film. But I remember there was this one moment in the script where Jamie’s character was put in an awful crazy medieval metal mask. I said, ‘That’s some sick thing Quentin thought up.’ And when I went to the production office to meet about my wardrobe, I saw into the research office. Twenty photos of real masks like that. It made me sad. I realized as much as my degrees and everything I’ve read on slave narratives [should have informed me], I didn’t even know that they wore masks like that, that people did that to us. It took a Tarantino movie for me to know that that’s not some crazy thing out of his imagination. That’s how it went down.”

Leo on playing the bad guy, finally: “Playing a bad guy opens you up to not having as many rules or restraints. I think actors have gravitated to that because it frees you up in a way. It takes you to the darkest place of where you are as a person and lets you indulge in that and give in to that and be as horrible as you possibly can without the conflicting side of what’s good and what’s right. This is the first legit bad guy I’ve ever had to play, and it is a f’king horrible [character]; the worst display of humanity I’ve ever read in my entire life. Not even just because of who he was and the racism, but because he is just the most self-indulgent bastard I’ve ever read.”

Leo on Oscar screenplay talk: “For me, the initial thing obviously was playing someone so disreputable and horrible whose ideas I obviously couldn’t connect with on any level. I remember our first read through, and some of my questions were about the amount of violence, the amount of racism, the explicit use of certain language. It was hard for me to wrap my head around it. My initial response was, ‘Do we need to go this far?” Quentin pushes the envelope, you know, much like Inglourious Basterds was about World War II, a heightened reality. His depiction or retelling of that time. This is his retelling of this era. But my immediate question was, ‘Are we going too far?’”

[From Vibe]

Okay, I’m officially sold on watching Django Unchained in the theater. At first (and at second) glance, the trailers seemed too campy to deal with the subject of slavery in a respectful manner. But I remember being slightly skeptical at the onset of casting for Inglourious Basterds too. Then I read the script for that movie (before watching the trailers) and I was similarly sold. While I haven’t read the script for Django yet, I will place my faith in QT. He hasn’t led me astray yet, although I remain amused at the scores of critics who claimed to love Death Proof upon its release and then changed their minds a few years later. Death Proof was only meant to be a throwaway exploitation flick and nothing more, but QT returned to fine form with Basterds, and hopefully he is here to stay.

Here are a few candid shots of Leo getting tackled by the “FBI” on the set of Martin Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street set. Is it just me, or does he really look like Ray Liotta in these photos? Perhaps that’s intentional, but we’ll have to wait until the movie comes out to judge for sure.

Photos courtesy of Vibe magazine and Fame/Flynet

Confession time, y’all: Quentin Tarantino is my favorite director in the entire universe, and I was very ashamed for doubting his judgment after the commercial failure of Grindhouse when he really pulled off Inglourious Basterds on a (near) masterful level. For quite awhile, I was really nervous about how Basterds would turn out, but once I saw that movie’s teaser trailer, all fears were immediately dispelled. So I was pretty pumped for the eventual arrival of a trailer for Django Unchained, but now I find myself somewhat deflated.

The new teaser trailer for Django Unchained debuted last night even though the movie doesn’t come out until Christmas Day. First off, it seems way too early for a teaser trailer because — just last month — QT was still attempting to resolve some casting issues left by the void of Sacha Baron Cohen. Granted, Cohen was slated for a role that’s something of a cameo in the vein of Mike Myers’ part in Inglourious Basterds, but it still seems like a big rush to the trailer altar to get something (anything?) ready to play in front of the big summer movies. Promotion is everything these days where movies are concerned, but I just don’t know here. Indeed, this trailer seems like a rushed product, which would make sense because, according to Paste Magazine, this trailer is essentially “an edited version of the ten minutes of footage Tarantino premiered at Cannes” just a couple of weeks ago. Dare I say that the tragic loss of QT’s long-time editor, the amazing Sally Menke, has already had a signficant effect on QT’s output? Check out the trailer, and we’ll discuss below:

For those unfamiliar with the plot of Django Unchained, Jamie Foxx plays the titular Django, who is a freed slave that discovers his wife (Kerry Washington) has been captured by slave owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Django is aided by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz, actually playing a sort-of-good guy for once), a German bounty hounter. The trailer’s declaration of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of vengeance” certainly will satisfy many fans of QT’s style while allowing him to also make a mark upon the Western genre with a Southern twist. Honestly, I’m not sure whether I like this trailer or not, but I’m hoping that Tarantino will prove me wrong again. Part of the problem is that I’m not much of a DiCaprio fan and have always found his acting to be overrated. Here he’s mugging it up so much for the camera that it’s hard to take the entire trailer seriously, and I think QT has been a bit too obvious with his choice of music as well. Hopefully, the film’s further promotion will be more promising than this mess. Don’t break my heart, QT!

Oh and … Christoph drinking a very important beverage at a very important table during an obviously important scene in the movie? Oh Tarantino, you so crazy.

Photos courtesy of AllMoviePhoto

This week’s Star Magazine is trying to make something happen between Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx and talentless, unfunny Olivia Munn. According to Star (via Jezebel), Jamie and Olivia are having “secret hookups” because they have some kind of “low-key, on-again, off-again connection.” Now, Jamie and Olivia have been rumored to have something going on for a few months – apparently, they were all over each other at the Oscars, and Bossip reported that Jamie and Olivia were snuggled up together at this year’s Elton John AIDS Foundation Oscar party.

But is it true? Meh. Jamie has been dating Stacey Dash for a while, it seems (maybe, although I can’t find much about them recently), and Dash was his date for the Oscars this year (I think?). When Jamie’s boys started hassling him about Olivia on his radio show, Jamie shut it down (kind of)… there’s some minor NSFW language here:

He claims that he doesn’t “date” white women. But does he bone them? That’s the question. My verdict: Although I wouldn’t put it past Jamie to screw around on Stacey Dash (who is gorgeous), I don’t think he would do anything other than FLIRT with Olivia Munn. Munn, after all, is like the budget Blake Lively at this point – desperate for a high-profile celebrity boyfriend. Munn even tried to make a romance with Matthew Morrison happen, for goodness sake. And right after meeting Jamie at the Oscars, she was trying to make some kind of cuddelfesting with Jake Gyllenhaal happen. Poor Olivia. Slim pickings, girl.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Jamie Foxx really surprised me with his latest appearance at a charity event for Quincy Jones’ Global Down Syndrome Foundation. He came with his sister, DeOndra Dixon, who has Downs, and explained that she lives with him, along with his other sister and his mom and dad. It’s obvious that Jamie has a lot of love for Diondra, and he was even joking around about her. She laughed at him and rolled her eyes when he was gushing about her. Here’s ET Online’s coverage and you can watch their video through their website.

We’ve seen Jamie Foxx with his sister DeOndra Dixon on the red carpet but now he’s putting her in the spotlight and opening up about caring for a sibling with down syndrome.

“This little lady right here lives with me along with my other sister, along with my father and my mother. So, we’re one big happy family,” Foxx said while seated next to DeOndra.

On Saturday night, DeOndra and her peers participated in the Be Beautiful, Be Yourself Jet Set Fashion Show where music great Quincy Jones and “Survivor” host Jeff Probst were both in attendance. The event went to benefit Global Down Syndrome Foundation. Foxx said of the evening, “This is just so amazing that she gets to do her thing where the spotlight is on her. The focus is on her. It means a lot.”

The actor couldn’t help but dote on his sister, telling ET, “I don’t call it a condition. I just call it living. … When she loves, she loves. When she’s mad, she’s mad. When she cries, she cries. When she’s happy, she’s happy, but she always tells the truth.”

He said the message of this event was to be yourself and to recognize that there’s “beautiful everywhere.”

[From ET Online]

That’s so nice! I used to see Jamie Foxx as this kind of smarmy guy who used a music career as a side gig to get laid, but even if he does do that, and he probably does, he’s a nice guy! He’s taking care of his family and he didn’t just buy them a house or hire people for them, he’s living with them. I love that.

The event that Jamie and his sister attended raised $1.45 million which will go to the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Now here are some pictures of Jamie shirtless and also outside a club. Because you know that’s how you still see him. (Me too.) I would hit that and only feel slightly guilty.

Photos are from August. Credit: BRJ and WIC/Fame Pictures

A few weeks ago, Howard Stern and Jamie Foxx got into a heated war of words. I think it may have actually started with Stern’s comments about Gaby Sidibe, actually. But it didn’t take long for the war to become less about Sidibe’s honor and more about two douches whipping out their wangs and trying to prove who was bigger. Jamie and his friends got on Jamie’s radio show (The Foxxhole) and bashed Howard and Howard’s sidekick Robyn. Then Stern said something, something, blah, blah, Jamie Foxx is GAY. And then Jamie responded about the gay thing. But Jamie might have given us more questions than answers.

Here’s the audio clip of Jamie answering Stern’s gay jibes, but basically it boils down to this quote from Jamie: “I’m not gay…A lot of people say that I’m gay and that doesn’t bother me, because I could eat a pizza in a male shower and not feel anything because I’m secure with myself.” What the pizza shower what? I think the pizza shower thing must be on the cusp of the current gay culture, because I’ve never heard of it until now, and I really can’t wait to have this explained to me. What sex act is “pepperoni”? How about “extra cheese”? Do I not want to know?

Honestly, though, I think I understand what Jamie is trying to say, maybe. I think he’s saying that he could stand around eating pizza as he watched a lot of hot dudes get all sudsy and clean and lathered up and wet and bending over to pick over the soap… just thinking about it makes Jamie hungry. Hungry for pizza. Meat lovers pizza. And dick.

Jamie Foxx has been taking a secondary role for the promotion of Law Abiding Citizen, which gets a full theatrical release this Friday. Gerard Butler has been promoting this film for a few weeks now, and will be doing even more promotion this week as he chills out in New York City, rehearsing for his gig as host of this weekend’s Saturday Night Live. Can you imagine it? Sigh… my guess is that there will be at least one skit where he’s shirtless. And there will probably be (just guessing here) some kind of digital spoof of 300. Meanwhile, this interview with Jamie Foxx is literally the first thing I’ve seen Jamie do for his promotional duties beyond red carpet interviews at the premiere.

In Parade, Jamie talks about everything from R&B (it’s for the ladies) to Roman Polanski. I guess with the content of LAC (Gerard’s family gets killed, Jamie’s district attorney cuts a bad deal with the killers, Gerard hunts down and tortures and kills everyone), Jamie and Gerard are going to get a lot of unimaginative questions about the American justice system and whether it’s broken or whatever. Parade decided to ask Jamie about our failed justice system’s current poster boy, Roman Polanski. Jamie doesn’t go off as much as I would have expected:

Passing judgment on Roman Polanski.
“If it had been my daughter who was barely a teenager–my daughter is 15–Roman Polanski would be missing . . . period. It wouldn’t even get to the court case. But, that’s me and I wouldn’t want anyone else to follow that because you should let the justice system work it out. On the other hand, I don’t know Roman Polanski, but maybe if I had a relationship with him my answer would be different. I just think this whole issue is bigger than Roman Polanski.”

Where do you draw the line?
“Revenge is a tough thing. When it comes to someone bringing harm to your family, it’s hard to think about turning the other cheek. When I hear about things that we allow to go on in our society where women are harmed, I just knee-jerk. I’ve said some things publicly that my publicist keeps telling me I should keep to myself. I don’t know if that’s my Texas upbringing, but there comes a point where you just say, ‘OK, that would be my tipping point. What would I do?’ Some of things I’ve said I’d do to sexual perpetrators were pretty graphic. But I also read some stories of people taking the law into their own hands, which is bad too. So it’s tough to know how far you’d go.”

Trying not to get left behind with his choices as a singer.
“I’m just going to stay current. It’s like all my R&B cohorts are out of jobs right now. Nobody wants to hear R&B. It’s sad. If you want to be on the radio you got to stay young. My daughter always goes, ‘Dad you sound old. You sound 50. Why don’t you have a machine on your voice? They’re not going to like that. You gotta sound young.’ Then when she heard me sing ‘Blame It,’ she went, ‘That’s it. That’s real music.’”

The celebrity challenge.
“It’s hard to be a celebrity nowadays. It’s not about your track record anymore. If you have a great movie, you’re good. If not, people are ready to write you off. I think the only ones who are really winning are people like Will Smith. People go, ‘Oh, it’s Will Smith. I’ve got to see him, whatever he’s in.’ It’s tough because the lines have been blurred. I was watching that reality show with Jon and Kate. They’re huge, and I don’t even know what they’re huge for. They somehow crossed over because they’re just as popular as Brad Pitt.”

Beware of YouTube.
“If you’re somewhat successful, you can keep on doing your thing. But don’t get caught out there looking goofy. It’s weird. When you do something that stinks, it’s going to last forever on the Internet. There’s always someone in the audience with a camera phone and if you’re not 100%, you’re going to be watching yourself on YouTube.”

[From Parade]

He sounds almost… thoughtful. Of course, this is the same guy who, back in April, said on his Sirius radio show that 16-year-old Miley Cyrus should “make a sex tape and grow up…Do like Lindsay Lohan and start being a lesbian… Get like Britney Spears and do some heroin… get some crack in your pipe… Catch chlamydia on a bicycle seat.” Of course, Jamie later apologized. And those just words. Granted, they were pretty gross, disgusting things to say about a 16-year-old, but it’s not like Jamie physically assaulted a young girl. Like Polanski did.

Jamie Foxx at the premiere of Law Abiding Citizen at The Grauman’s Chinese theatre in Los Angeles, California on October 6, 2009. Credit: WENN.