Everyone and their brother was at the Cloverfield premiere last night, so it’s kind of laughable to see Lindsay Lohan hamming it up as if she’s the shit. Her makeup is grungy and she’s looking old, but her hair looks gorgeous as usual. She probably spends over $500 a week on it.

Cloverfield is the new Godzilla meets Blair Witch movie that’s been generating a lot of buzz over the secrecy the filmmakers tried so hard to create. It’s getting mostly positive reviews and currently has a 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. One review that trashed it was so creative that I have to quote him though. I’m not saying this is a definitive review because I haven’t seen the film, he just gets points for describing his theater-going experience so clearly. Plus being subjected to Lindsay’s preening mug gives me a bad impression of the film and I’m more likely to believe the negative reviews:

“Cloverfield” combines unpleasantness and stupidity to a degree that would be difficult to match unless you were stuck in bed with a case of the shingles while being forced to watch “The Ghost Whisperer.”

As “The Blair Witch Project” meets “Godzilla” meets the Banana Republic catalog, I’m not sure who suffered more: the characters or me.

They: are being terrorized by a giant monster roaring through Manhattan, destroying buildings, knocking down bridges and playing shotput with the Statue of Liberty’s head.

I: was forced to write down page after page of dialogue like this: “What the hell was that?” “Oh, God, this is nasty!” “This is like a nightmare, you know?” After a monster tries to drag one of the screamers away, we get, “What’s up with that?” Someone who is bleeding from the eyeballs is asked, “Are you okay?” and one who has nearly been ripped apart alive in the last 30 seconds quips, “You’re saying this isn’t attractive looking?” Tell me, if everyone you knew were getting pulverized, would you pause to make a sarcastic crack about Garfield?

[Kyle Smith Online]

Here’s the trailer, and I’m inclined to believe it’s as annoying as this guy claims, but I have very little basis on which to make that decision. It’s possible that it’s good junk food horror and that the characters are deliberately stupid in a kind of parody of every other horror film. Whether they make it work or not is up to interpretation.

And here are pictures from the premiere featuring Lindsay and her hair, Pete Wentz and a redheaded Ashlee Simpson, Jennifer Morrison, Ashley Tisdale, Stacy Keibler, Kristin Cavallari, and Lauren Conrad. That Spencer Pratt guy and his fake girlfriend Heidi Montag were also there. Do those two always look the same or is it just me?

Johnny Depp spotted 84 year-old sitcom actress Rose Marie, who played Sally Rogers on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” at a screening of Sweeney Todd. He went right over to the surprised older woman and started telling her what a great actress she is and how he watched every episode of her show when he was a boy. He spent about ten minutes talking to her, and she was thrilled:

At an exclusive screening of his movie, Sweeney Todd, the actor ditched bigwig pals Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and director Tim Burton to make a beeline for his idol… 84 year-old sitcom actress Rose Marie.

The comedian - best known as the perennial bachelorette in the 1960s series “The Dick Van Dyke Show” - is a supreme master of her craft, according to Depp.

“Johnny totally freaked when he saw Rose Marie,” a source told The Enquirer. “He hurried toward her and gave her a hug.”

“He told her he grew up watching her, that he’s seen every episode - and that he is her greatest fan.

“Rose Marie seemed incredible flattered, and Johnny made it clear he recognized her as an immense talent.

“They talked for about 10 minutes, and Johnny told her over and over how thrilled he was to meet her…

“Rose Marie got a thrill out of being praised by Johnny, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars,” said the source, “and she certainly deserves it.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, January 21, 2008]

I love that story! The best thing about it that Johnny probably was really excited to see Rose Marie after watching her show while he was growing up. He seems like such a genuine and kind person, and that’s so nice to hear.

Johnny wore a hot-looking black sparkly throwback suit with a wide collar to the UK premiere of Sweeney Todd last night. The Sun made fun of his attire, but I think he looks great and as one commentor on the article wrote: “Johnny Depp could wear a bin liner and still look better than 90% of men you see on the red carpet.” I love his original way of dressing as well as his very original and kind personality.

Thanks to PRPhotos and WENN for these pictures.

If I worked for Star or the National Enquirer, right now I’d be telling you how Will Smith is encouraging teenagers to have as much sex as possible. That’s right, Will Smith wants you (or your kids, depending on your age) to have as much freaky lovin as possible – as long as you don’t get high first. Alright in reality, Will Smith was just talking about what kept him off drugs in high school, and that was his preoccupation with getting with the ladies. That’s right, Will had bigger things to think about than getting high. And frankly, if you could do a lot of (bad) drugs or have a lot of (good) sex, which would you choose?

Hollywood actor Will Smith has credited his sex obsession with keeping him away from drugs as a teenager. The 39-year-old star has maintained his aversion to alcohol and drugs throughout his life, and he steered clear of addictions in his younger days by spending every waking moment fantasizing about women.

He says, “Through my teenage years I was too focused on sex to even think about any other vices. I’m much the same now. No drugs and only the occasional drink.”

[From Starpulse]

Alright so he’s not exactly telling your kids to drop their bong and grab a boob instead. Boy I sure would like to see that “Anti-drug” commercial. “T&A: the anti-drug.” It’d probably work. I bet if we told teenagers, “Alright, if you agree not to ever so much as touch a drink or a drug, you can have as much sex as you want,” most of them would agree. I’m not saying we should, I’m just pointing out it’d probably be pretty effective. And in my little hypothetical, there would be no STDs or pregnancy as a result of this… because it’s my hypothetical universe and I can make whatever rules I want. Which means that in it, Paris Hilton would have monopolized all the STDs – as she’s the most hospitable environment for that sort of thing – and the rest of us would be immune. Will Smith didn’t mention that part, but I’m pretty sure that’s the natural conclusion.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Will Smith is shown at the premiere of I Am Legend with Tom Cruise and Jada Pinkett Smith last night. Jada looks thrilled to be standing between those two, or maybe she’s just practicing her “Posh face.” Thanks to PRPhotos.

Keira Knightley sported the new helmet mullet hairstyle and an unflattering peach tulle dress that emphasized her concave chest at the Atonement premiere in LA last night. She paired the pastel gown with clunky black and gray heels, dark nail polish, and a huge dark ring, making it seem as if the dress was a last-minute switch from a black outfit that would have better matched her look.

Keira’s ability to dress for a film premiere has no bearing on her acting skill. She plays an upper class British woman who falls for the maid’s son in Atonement, a period drama that is winning rave reviews. Here’s the trailer:

Keira posed topless for the latest cover of Interview Magazine, with a pair of suspenders and her palm strategically placed to hide what are presumed to be nipples. She told Interview that Atonement is about loss and hints at the main conflict in the plot:

There were so many species of loss in [your upcoming film Atonement]–there’s the loss of a girl, the loss of a woman, the loss of a love. Which did you relate to the most? All of them. That’s the power of it. Everybody has regrets. Everybody feels guilty about something, though hopefully not for something as bad as what happens in the movie. But that’s what is wonderful about the book and the film–you understand where these people are coming from. The situation may be completely different from ones I’ve experienced or that most people have experienced, but the core emotions are the same–that we all make mistakes, and sometimes we’re horrendous to each other. It’s the Robbie character [played by James McAvoy] that I find truly heartbreaking, because at the beginning he’s really Christ-like in his goodness–he’s a selfless, perfect person–and in a funny way I don’t think we can ever handle it when someone is that good, so what we do is destroy them.

[From Interview Magazine and found on Huffington Post]

After I read that quote and saw the preview I was intrigued as to the plot of the film, so I looked up the synopsis of the book (warning: spoilers in linked article), which was written in 2001 by Ian McEwan. Wikipedia is quite good at summarizing entire books and television shows, and I’m one of those people who can’t resist spoilers. It sounds like an excellent film, and the book has received a lot of critical acclaim. The same can’t be said of Knightley’s gown choices, which often feature that middle-of-the-chest baring style that emphasizes how thin she is. She claims to hate it when people comment on her weight and fashion, but if that’s the case she should mix it up a little by wearing dresses that cover her chest, not shoes and jewelry that don’t match.

Advance reviews are out for Sweeney Todd and the critics are raving about incredible performances by Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen. Depp might even win his first Oscar for this one. The only reservations that people seem to have about the film have to do with the blood and gore shown throughout. It looks like it’s going to be a huge commercial as well as a critical success:

Both sharp and fleet, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” proves a satisfying screen version of Stephen Sondheim’s landmark 1979 theatrical musical. Where much could have gone wrong, things have turned out uniformly right thanks to highly focused direction by Tim Burton, expert screw-tightening by scenarist John Logan, and haunted and musically adept lead performances from Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Assembled artistic combo assures the film will reap by far the biggest audience to see a pure Sondheim musical, although just how big depends on the upscale crowd’s tolerance for buckets of blood, and the degree to which the masses stay away due to the whiff of the highbrow.

[From Variety via The Huffington Post]

This film looks incredible and although I usually avoid both scary films and musicals I’ll go see it. There’s just too much advance buzz for me to ignore.

Johnny Depp looked dashing with a hint of mischievousness at the premiere of the film in NY last night. He wore studious round tortoiseshell glasses and a dapper pinstriped suit with a black shirt and silk tie. He paired the tailored outfit with incredibly muddy old beat-up workboots perhaps as a tribute to his character’s neurosis or maybe just to mix it up a little. This guy somehow exudes extreme charisma without a hint of arrogance. I know he had some issues in his youth with trashing hotel rooms but he’s at the top of his game now and he seems to definitely deserve the accolades. Hopefully he’ll have an Oscar to put on his mantle next year.

Sweeney Todd is out in US Theaters on December 21. Here are the release dates for the rest of the world.

Thanks to WENN for these photos.

The stars were out at the premiere of the children’s fantasy The Golden Compass last night in London. The film is based on the first book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, and stars Kidman as an evil villain to 13 year-old newcomer Dakota Blue Richards’ character, young heroine Lyra Belacqua. Daniel Craig plays Lyra’s uncle and guardian Lord Asriel. Eva Green is typecast as a witch who helps Lyra on her quest.

Here’s the trailer:

The Golden Compass is out on December 5 in the UK and December 7 in the US.

Here are the photos from the premiere. The Daily Mail points out that Daniel Craig’s girlfriend, Satsuki Mitchell, looks like she’s wearing an engagement ring.

Thanks to WENN for these pictures.

26 year-old Jessica Alba looks pregnant to me. I know I’m always calling celebrities pregnant, but in the last two cases, Nicole Richie and Cate Blanchett, I was right and well ahead of the tabloids. (Although I did call Nicole Kidman pregnant enough times for her to have had Irish twins by now.) At first I wrote this whole post making fun of Alba’s recent lack of style, but when I looked at the pictures closely I was struck by how much her lower stomach looks like it’s sticking out in this dress. It could just be the style of the dress, but I suspect she’s knocked up. Alba is currently reunited with her longterm boyfriend, Cash Warren, who was also at the premiere of Awake in NY last night.

Is Alba pregnant or did she fire her stylist? She was on TRL on Tuesday wearing a loose t-shirt and skirt outfit that Agent Bedhead said made her look “like the ditzy secretary who takes the ‘business-casual; notion way too literally.” Then last night she showed up at the premiere of her new film, Awake, wearing a black dress with scalloped lace detail and puffy cap sleeves. Her look is just perfect for that mid 80s prom she would have been crowned queen of if she was born 15 years earlier.

The dress even featured some odd gathered fabric tied around the stomach area that managed to make the super-thin Alba look pregnant, and she paired it with dark stockings! That dress makes it seem as if she’s got something to hide, like a bump or her natural beauty. When did Alba start dressing like a frump? Wasn’t she know for her excellent fashion on the red carpet? Alba is a b-movie actress who scored a gig presenting at the Oscars on looks and fashion. Take away the fashion and she starts to look plain.

Compare Alba to her co-star Hayden Christensen’s girlfriend, Rachel Bilson, who looks flawless apart from those huge double hoop earrings, which aren’t ridiculous so much as distracting. Her dress takes just enough risks to look daring without going over the top, and the bright diagonal swatches of color and slightly asymmetric bustline are striking. She matches a plain black belt with simple black heels and the result is gorgeous, like Jessica Alba used to look. Maybe Alba should call up Cate Blanchett and ask her how to maximize her style while trying to hide the growing evidence of a pregnancy. Just dressing uglier isn’t going to help, and it may lead to some false bump spottings, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Here are Jessica Alba, Hayden Christensen, and Rachel Bilson at the NY premiere of Awake. The film is a medical thriller about a man who wakes up during heart surgery but cannot move or speak. Here’s the trailer. Awake is out in the US on November 30th.

Thanks to PRPhotos and Splash News for these pictures.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt made another public appearance at last night’s London premiere of her CGI epic Beowolf. The Daily Mail notes that she had gum stuck to the bottom of her heel and that her pants were ripped slightly on the seam across her butt, but you could hardly tell unless you were staring at her ass and feet.

Along with all the other overhyped tabloid cover stories about Brangelina this week there’s an article in the National Enquirer that isn’t featured on the cover, but sounds just as typically fake. It claims that Angelina told Brad that their family is moving to France or she’s going without him. As a compromise, she is said to have promised Brad to have another biological child with him.

Angelina Jolie is so desperate to live outside the U.S. that she told Brad Pitt she’s moving to France with or without him!

Brad has reluctantly agreed to move on one condition - that Angelina gives him another biological child…

At least one insider says that Angelina, 32, wants to leave the U.S. because she’s worried that brad has been enjoying himself too much in LA and NY and it has left her insecure. With his family and friends in the U.S., Brad, 43, has resisted Angelina’s pleas to take their growing family abroad.

“But Angelina didn’t really give Brad any alternative in the end,” said the insider. “As far as Angelina was concerned it was France or bust - bustup, that is.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, November 19, 2007]

One thing might be true about this story - they supposedly purchased a vineyard in France.

In August, the couple agreed to buy a vacation home and vineyard in Provence after they visited the beautiful Chateau Val Joanis in the Luberon region north of Aix-en-Provence.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, November 19, 2007]

Considering all the other homes the couple is collecting - including a new estate in Berlin - that doesn’t mean that they’re about to move there long term. I don’t remember hearing about this vineyard before, but there are so many “Brad and Angelina bought a house” stories that they all kind of blend together. Here’s a link to a story on ecorazzi about the vineyard purchase.

Here are Brad and Angelina at the Beowolf premiere in London last night, thanks to PRPhotos.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt made an appearance at the premiere of Angelina’s new CGI epic, Beowulf, last night. Angelina plays an evil seductress through a realistic-looking avatar that appears semi-nude in one scene emerging from a pool. (link NSFW) Her body was mapped for the film, and she says that the results were so true to life that she felt “exposed” and had to explain to Brad that the movie was a bit racy:

Angelina said, “I was really surprised that I felt exposed. There are certain moments where I actually felt shy - and called home, just to explain that the fun movie I had done that was a digital animation was, in fact, a little different than we expected.

“I didn’t expect ourselves to come out as much. I didn’t expect it to feel as real, so it was kind of funny at first.”

Angelina, who was pregnant with her daughter Shiloh when she worked on ‘Beowulf,’ admits her baby bump caused some problems for the animators.

She told People magazine, “I was three months pregnant for some of it. You wouldn’t know though. We did the mapping of my body before and they worked wonders. It was a pleasure.”

[From ChinaDaily.com]

Angelina is said to have been snippy at the press conference for Beowulf where she made that statement. A journalist asked her about the competing covers of W Magazine that pitted her against her partner’s ex, Jennifer Aniston. She shot back “Why would I comment on that?” and said “That matters because….”

It doesn’t sound to me like she’s being pissy so much as refusing to continue a feud that is dragged out for the sake of selling gossip rags. It seems like Angelina has learned after repeatedly getting flogged by the media that there’s no possibility of answering that question in a way won’t be turned around and used to fuel fake and speculative stories. It’s never too late to STFU, so good for her.

Angelina’s brother, James Haven, didn’t quite get the memo yet, though. He was talking about how he’s great buddies with Brad, and hopes that he will cast him in one of his movies. He also says his sister isn’t too thin and that she hopes to have kids again soon.

When asked if Jolie, 32, and Brad Pitt, were planning for more kids, her brother James Haven told reporters: “I would assume yes. I’ve even been like, ‘So, when are you going to….’”

Pitt, 43, also showed up at the premiere and gave Jolie a peck on the cheek; she appeared smitten.

So how do the couple of more than two years keep the spark alive?

“They just work off each other well,” Haven, 34, said. “I just think there’s a certain energy to it.”

Haven told Usmagazine.com he has even bonded “amazingly” with Pitt.

“We get along great,” Haven said, “We talk about movies, we talk about bikes … kids obviously are a major topic, so it’s great. You know, I’m looking forward one day to maybe working with him.”

Though Jolie appeared relatively skinny in her dress, Haven brushed off any concerns for her health. “I know she’s fine … I know she’s fine,” he said.

[From US Weekly.com]

He didn’t talk smack about their dad or reveal too much, so I guess you can’t fault him for answering the questions that were posed to him.

Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures of Brad and Angelina at the NY premiere of Beowulf last night. The film hits US theaters on November 16.

Russell Crowe, Mel Gibson, and Jeremy Piven were among the Hollywood luminaries with anger management issues at American Gangster industry screening in Hollywood last night. Denzel Washington stars in American Gangster as Frank Lucas, a hugely successful drug lord in early 70s Harlem. Crowe plays a detective out to catch Lucas, and the film draws moral parallels between the two characters, with neither shown as morally superior or more deserving.

Comingsoon.net has an interview with Crowe and Washington about the upcoming film and their respective roles:

ComingSoon.net: Can you talk about the delicate balance between good versus evil we see between your two characters?
Washington: (laughs for a long time) Now, who was the good guy and who was the evil guy? That’s the delicate balance.

CS: One could say that the cord runs parallel to both.
Washington: Right, and there you have it. (laughter) The cord runs parallel to both. Jump in there, Russell. (laughs)
Crowe: Well, I think that’s one of the fascinating things about the two characters and about the story itself. That none of that’s clear. There’s not a clear singular morality, and when you get the opportunity to play that sort of thing, which is nothing more than reality and the sort of humanity as it exists, it’s just a bit of fun. You know, Richie’s an honest guy and all that sort of thing, but as his wife calls him out in the court: you’re only honest in one area — you try and buy yourself favorites for all the sh*t that you do. I just think that’s an honest appraisal of who he was at that time, but it also leaks into that area of discussing why people go bad in the first place, or what the process of Frank Lucas was to become a drug dealer. If Frank Lucas had been befriended by somebody else and educated in a different area, he might get in a situation where a university’s named after him. He’s a very smart guy and he uses things that he’s learned to the best of his ability to change his life and change the life of his family at that time. But it just happened to be that Bumpy Johnson was his teacher. We were joking yesterday about doing his sort of course work on the street, PhD in criminality under Bumpy Johnson.
Washington: Yeah. (laughter)

[From ComingSoon.net]

Here’s the trailer. The film looks like it kicks ass, and I’m in the states now and think that I’ll see it this weekend:

The real Frank Lucas, on whom Denzel Washington’s character is based, is now out of prison after two separate stints, the most recent ending in 1991. He is 77 and is confined to a wheelchair. A documentary will air about Lucas on BET on October 31st.

American Gangster is getting largely positive reviews, and is out in US theaters on Friday.

Thanks to PRPhotos for these premiere pictures, which also include Oliver Martinez. The lights there must have been bright, because everyone looks like they’re squinting. There are also stills from the film, thanks to allmoviephoto.