50 Cent by George Pimentel/ WireImage.com
50 Cent has a beef with Taco Bell — and yes, it's a spicy beef, to the tune of a $4 million lawsuit. The rapper has sued the fast-foodery, claiming that its "Why Pay More?" ad campaign uses his name without permission, by publicly asking him to call himself 79, 89 or 99 Cent. (It's a value-menu joke. Har.)Court papers say that Taco Bell sent a letter "requesting" the name change — and offering to donate $10,000 in 50 Cent's name to charity for doing so — to news outlets, but never actually to the rapper. Instead, 50 Cent learned of his name's appropriation through a news report. Taco Bell responded to the suit by maintaining the overture was "a good faith, charitable offer." — Matt Mitovich
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50 Cent by Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com
MTV on Thursday announced its roster of new summer and fall shows, which will include a mix of reality, competition, music and issue-oriented series. The net's biggest celeb pairing of the season may be with Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson for an Apprentice-meets-Real-World type of combo, where 16 contestants compete for a scholarship to a graduate or undergraduate business program — ostensibly so that they can become a mega-mogul like 50. The Untitled 50 Cent Project, however, is just one of several newbies hitting MTV airwaves in the months to come. The others include:Buzzin: A reality series following the paths of music artists Shwayze (apparently self-described as "the only black kid in Malibu") and his BFF, Cisco Adler. Sounds like: Making the Band meets The Hills.Busted: Sounds like Cops meets Juvies. Need we say more?Baby Dolls: A half-hour, doc-style scripted comedy about celebrity worship, from the perspective of an assistant to a rising Hollywood starlet. Sounds like: The De...
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Ryan Seacrest by Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage.com
How does the song go? "If I Were a Rich Dog... "? The late Leona Helmsley's dog, Trouble, earns $12 million per year and makes Parade magazine's annual "What People Earn" survey. But trouble loves company: The pooch is joined by Ryan Seacrest at the $12 mil mark.But that's kibbles & bits when compared to other celebs, like Miley Cyrus ($18.2 million), 50 Cent ($33 million), Dr. Phil ($90 million) and Oprah ($260 million).The magazine also surveyed regular folks (that is, folks who don't turn up on tabloid covers) and found they make roughly 1/100th of the top-paid celebs.So who's worth it: Is Miley worth $18.2 million? Is Dr. Phil a bargain at $90 mil? — J.R. Whalen
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Romany Malco and Mary Louise Parker by Randy Tepper/Showtime
Moments after wrapping up a press conference for television critics last weekend, Weeds star Romany Malco joined TVGuide.com in the Beverly Hilton Hotel lobby to dish about the dark comedy’s third season, his character Conrad’s sexual tension with Nancy and what it’s really like to work with an Olsen twin. TVGuide.com: Tell me something nobody else knows about the new season.Romany Malco: Perhaps one of the most unpredictable things, at least for me, is U-Turn. So far, when I’ve been reading the scripts, the one time where I went, “No!” is U-Turn. The way that dude comes into Nancy’s life, everybody is going to be so hurt because everybody wanted Conrad to be with Nancy. Then U-Turn comes into the picture and — I haven’t told anybody else — it ain’t about Conrad right now.TVGuide.com: So Nancy is attracted to U-Turn?Malco: Yeah. It’s very interesting. He has this charm and he has this thick skin and swagger that Nancy takes...
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Laurence Fishburne is adapting the best-selling novel The Alchemist into a feature film fancied as "Harry Potter meets Indiana Jones." Fishburne will also direct.... Rapper 50 Cent is in final talks to join Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the crime thriller Righteous Kill, playing a drug dealer who helps track a serial killer.... Djimon Hounsou is a mixed-martial-arts coach in Get Some, an indie drama also starring Sean Faris, Amber Heard (Hidden Palms) and Cam Gigandet (The O.C.).... Alfred Hitchcock's first film, The Lodger, is being remade as a modern-day urban thriller set in Los Angeles.... Oliver Platt will play television exec Bob Zelnick in Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon film.
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Per Variety, four days before filming was to begin, Emory University renegged on an agreement to play host to Fox Atomic's Revenge of the Nerds remake, reportedly due to the film's raunchy content. The project is now on hiatus.... Julia Roberts will topline The Friday Night Knitting Club, based on an upcoming novel about a single mom juggling a teen daughter and a knitting store.... Per the Hollywood Reporter, Robert De Niro and 50 Cent are in talks to costar in New Orleans, a thriller set against the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina.... Desperate Housewives hunk Jesse Metcalfe is a rich kid ensnared in the world of drugs, sex and violence in Loaded, an indie also starring Johnny Messner and Monica Keena.
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Anna Paquin and Breckin Meyer will costar in Blue State, about a young Democrat who follows through on a promise to move to Canada if George W. Bush got reelected.... Aaron Eckhart is Bill, a distraught man who mentors an unruly teen.... Antonio Banderas will play Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés in the historical epic Conquistador.... Nicolas Cage and 50 Cent are ready for The Dance, based on the life of prison boxing coach Billy "The Kid" Roth.... Focus Features has grabbed the rights to Dean Koontz's upcoming novel The Husband, about a man whose love for his wife is put to a harrowing series of tests — an O.C. marathon not included.
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Mariah Carey, Kanye West and John Legend are the early favorites for the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, having garnered eight nominations each this morning. Alicia Keys, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé Knowles, 50 Cent, Stevie Wonder and the Black Eyed Peas (I love those lumps!) follow with six nods apiece. CBS will broadcast the ceremony live on Feb. 8; for a complete list of nominations, visit Grammys.com.
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Chicken Little fended off a string of newcomers — including the new Jennifer Aniston thriller, Derailed — to hold on to the top spot at the box office for the second consecutive weekend. Dipping a minuscule 20 percent, Chicken grossed $32 million to bring its cumulative haul to $80.8 million. The sci-fi fantasy Zathura debuted at No. 2 with $14 million, followed by Derailed (No. 3 with $12.8 million) and 50 Cent's semiautobiographical drama Get Rich or Die Tryin' (No. 4 with $12.5 million). Overall receipts were down 15 percent from the same weekend last year.
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