Governor's Ball preview by Mike Guastella/WireImage.com
With the Academy Awards celebrating its 80th year this Sunday, Feb. 24, it seems only fitting that the Governor’s Ball roll out the red carpet in grand fashion. Thus the occasion’s chosen color scheme: red-carpet red and the gold of an Oscar statuette. Inside the doors of Hollywood & Highland Center’s Grand Ballroom, the scene will be one of elegance and contemporary glamour with a multilevel layout featuring nine different sections, all with their own flair. Red roses with sprays of yellow gemstar will adorn the tables along with Kartell lamps. Whimsical glass bubbles set off by firefly lights will float from the ceiling. Taking the stage will be the 12-member orchestra Pink Martini. Further entertainment comes by way of music stylist and radio host Jason Bentley.Beyond celebrity attendees like George Clooney and Julia Roberts, the main attraction of the annual event is always cuisine created by the world-renowned chef Wolfgang Puck. "Simple and refined, that's w...
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Guillermo Del Toro by Nick Wall/ WireImage.com
Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth) is negotiating to direct New Line's Peter Jackson-produced two-movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, says the Reporter.... Best-actress Oscar nominee Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) is in talks to join Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in Public Enemies, Michael Mann's 1930s-set organized-crime drama.... Comedian Bill Engvall has signed on to Bait Shop, a fishing comedy starring Billy Ray Cyrus as Engvall's nemesis.... Julia Roberts will produce and star in Hothouse Flowers, about a recent divorcée who leaves her job and takes off on an adventure. — Mickey O’ConnorWhat's your take? Would Tolkien be in good hands with del Toro?
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Milo Ventimiglia by Mitchell Haaseth/NBC Photo
Milo Ventimiglia, Laurence Fishburne and Jean Reno have signed on to join Matt Dillon and Skeet Ulrich in the heist film Armored.... Tom Wilkinson is in talks to reteam with Michael Clayton director Tony Gilroy for Duplicity, a corporate thriller headlined by Clive Owen and Julia Roberts, and also starring Billy Bob Thornton.... Walt Disney Studios is bringing new 3-D versions of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 to theaters on Oct. 2, 2009, and Feb. 12, 2010, respectively, setting up the June 2010 arrival of Toy Story 3.
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Adam Sandler's "The Hanukkah Song"Doesn't it seem like only yesterday that Adam Sandler was on SNL performing his hit "The Hanukkah Song?" Oh, how we miss those days. But thanks to the power of online video, we're resurrecting this holiday classic now that the Hanukkah season is upon us. Not that Part II and III aren't fabulous, but we're still going on record to say that this one is by far the most genius. Watch it now! | More online videosBest Wedding Dance — Ever!You all know the drill: Attend wedding reception, newlyweds are announced for the first time, then watch as they revert back to seventh grade and slow-dance in a circle to some sappy love song. But alas, one couple has dared to break the mold! Check out these lovebirds as they pull the whoop-dee-whoop on their guests and bust out to "Baby Got Back," complete with all your favorite old-skool moves. More online videosGeorge Clooney Propositioned in Bathroom Stall?The parodies just keep getting better and better (a...
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A seething Roberts lectures a photog
Oooo... Julia is pissed off! Soon after a photog tried to nab some pics of her kiddies at school, Roberts jumped in her car and chased the paparazzo down (driving and honking on the wrong side of the road, mind you) until he pulled over and turned his camera off. Celebs chasing the paps? Oh the irony. Watch it now!
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ABC has pulled its Friday-night rebroadcasts of ABC Family's Kyle XY after four low-rated outings, TV Week reports.... TNT has ponied up $17 mil for the cable rights to 300, to premiere in September 2009. Per Variety, TNT believes it can edit out the blood and gore while maintaining the film's integrity.... OurChart.com and FanLib.com have announced a writing contest inviting fans of The L Word to rewrite any scene from Season 1 or 2. The winning submission will air as part of a future episode. Go here for deets.... On DVD August 7: 8 Simple Rules: The Complete First Season and Home Improvement, Season 7.... A survey commissioned by Arm & Hammer Advanced White Toothpaste finds that women most covet the smiles of Halle Berry and Julia Roberts. As for which Hollyhunk they'd like to "share their toothpaste" with, George Clooney edged out Matthew McConaughey.
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Julia Roberts by Steve Granitz/WireImage.com
Julia Roberts and husband Danny Moder welcomed her third child, a boy named Henry Daniel, on Monday. The couple started their family in November 2004 with the arrival of famously named twins Hazel and Phinnaeus. Was this simply nature taking its course, or Pretty Woman's rather mean bid to steal the thunder of niece Emma's big-screen Nancy Drew debut? Discuss.
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Pandemic's Eric Roberts
In Hallmark Channel's Pandemic (premiering Saturday at 8 pm/ET, repeating Sunday at 6), when flu-like symptoms kill a young man aboard a plane en route to Los Angeles from Australia, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (one Tiffani Thiessen) orders the quarantine of all the passengers. Alas, containing an outbreak never proves to be simple, and soon a hunt is on for Patient Zero. Playing the mayor of Los Angeles during this crisis is Eric Roberts, most recently of Heroes but more notably from any number of films. Oh, and he's Julia's brother and up-and-comer
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Julia Roberts will portray Joan Root, an African wildlife conservationist who was murdered in her Kenyan home this past January, in a big-screen biopic.... Audrey Tautou will channel Coco Chanel in a film from French director Anne Fontaine.... Per Variety, Goldie Hawn will star in Ashes to Ashes, a comedy about a woman traveling to Kathmandu to scatter her husband's ashes but she, um, loses them. Kurt Russell will costar (not as the ashes, I hope).... Per the Reporter, producer Emmanuel Benbihy has rounded up several up-and-coming filmmakers — Zach Braff and Mira Nair included — for New York, I Love You, a cinematic Valentine à la Paris, Je T'aime.
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ABC has inked a deal for Oprah Winfrey to host her own pre-Oscars interview special, Variety reports. Whereas Barbara Walters does the Q&Aing herself on her own annual chitchats, Oprah has recruited Academy Award winners Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman and Jamie Foxx to each interview an Oscar winner they admire. Ergo, the Pretty Woman will gab with BFF George Clooney, Kidman will kibbitz with fellow Aussie Russell Crowe, and Foxx will sit down with Sidney Poitier.This special — which surely will feature "Oprah Winfrey Presents" somewhere in its title — will air Feb. 22 at 10 pm/ET, three days before this year's Oscars.
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