Penning what amounts to a Harvard-caliber book report for the Huffington Post, the actress and animal rights activist holds forth on her devotion to veganism and her opinion that those who choose to feast on flesh without regard for the moral implications might as well change their name to Roman Polanski.
The 28-year-old—with whose glowing self veganism clearly agrees—starts off harmlessly enough, crediting Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals with her transition from 20 years of vegetarianism to eschewing all animal byproducts.
"I've always been shy about being critical of others' choices because I hate when people do that to me," she writes. "I'm often interrogated about being vegetarian (e.g., 'What if you find out that carrots feel pain, too? Then what'll you eat?').
"I've also been afraid to feel as if I know better than someone else—a historically dangerous stance (I'm often reminded that 'Hitler was a vegetarian, too, you know.') But this book reminded me that some things are just wrong."
That's where the criminalization of carnivores comes in.
Rejecting the simplistic thinking that "This is tasty, and that's why I do it," Portman backs Foer's argument that a little more thought at the dinner table wouldn't hurt anyone…least of all our four-legged friends.
"He posits that consideration…which has more to do with being polite to your tablemates than sticking to your own ideals, would be absurd if applied to any other belief (e.g., I don't believe in rape, but if that's what it takes to please my dinner hosts, then so be it)."
And if sensationalizing the act of meat-eating (and, incidentally, grossly discounting the severity of rape) is what it takes for her to get her point across, well, so be that, too.
Though, in fairness to Portman, her detailing of the "copious amounts of pig shit sprayed into the air" will likely make even the most ardent bacon-eater rethink their brunch menu.
That Harvard really teaches you how to turn a phrase.
The Don Roos vehicle that showcases the accomplished performance is somewhat less so, hampered by a structure that initially makes the proceedings tricky to follow. It ultimately finds its footing, but it's Portman's skillfully executed turn that deserves pursuit by a distributor who knows its way around an awards campaign.
Based on Ayelet Waldman's Manhattan-based novel, the tart dramedy wastes little time in setting up the strained relationship between Emilia Greenleaf (Portman) and her precocious stepson, William (Charlie Tahan), the product of his father Jack's (Scott Cohen) previous marriage to the caustic, fiercely overprotective Carolyn (Lisa Kudrow).
But if her being regarded in certain circles as a home-wrecker might be explanation enough for her glib view of the universe, there's a deeper reason for that emotionally aloof defense mechanism.
The death of the 3-day-old child she had with Jack has left an increasing void in her life that threatens to swallow up everyone else who cares about her. While this might sound like awfully heavy stuff, Roos has a proven gift for finding humor in some unlikely places, most notably (and still most successfully) in his 1998 directorial debut, "The Opposite of Sex."
Achieving that balance is not the problem with "Impossible Pursuits"; rather, it's an often-confusing series of subtle flashbacks early on that sometimes makes it challenging for the viewer to sort out the past from the present.
When Roos dispenses with the time shifts and takes a more linear approach, the film settles in to a more focused, more affecting groove.
But while he draws fine work from all concerned, including Debra Monk and playwright-actor Michael Cristofer as Emilia's parents, it's Portman who you simply cannot take your eyes away from, and not for the obvious reasons.
With her brittle, risk-taking performance, Portman officially has grown into her potential as an actress of commanding depth and versatility.
The comedic drama about the complicated personal life of a young, married New York woman -- who's grieving the loss of a baby while dealing with a difficult stepson -- would have been quite different with Lopez as the lead.
"That's always the way it is in Hollywood: The next move, if JLo can't do it, is to get NaPo," director-screenwriter Don Roos cracked yesterday, sitting beside Portman during roundtable interviews yesterday.
"We went to NaPo and we weren't sorry."
Added Portman, 28, with a giggle: "Anyway, it was kind of awesome 'cause all through filming Don would be like, 'JLo would have done that much, much better.' "
Turns out that Portman -- who flew into Toronto straight from Belfast, where she's shooting the medieval comedy Your Highness opposite Danny McBride and James Franco -- had way more in common with the lead character, Amelia.
"It was amended for Jennifer, really," Roos said of the script, which he based on Ayelet Waldman's bestseller of the same name.
"The book is written figuratively for Natalie Portman. The same age, the same background, a New York Jewish girl. It's just exactly what you would think of Natalie, but we bent it in a different way for Jennifer, and we just had to unbend it -- and it was just a delight to actually go back."
Portman, who doesn't have any children and isn't married, said she has known women who have lost children and has observed the impact the tragedy has had on them.
"I mean it's horrific, but it's an interesting thing to see how people deal with the difficult things life throws at them," she said. "I've definitely known people who don't want to have children, because that's just your fear from the moment you have a kid. I know it with my dog. I have nightmares every night. And I can only imagine it's a hundred times worse (with a child)."
She also liked Roos' take on the often unlikable character of Amelia, who has a sarcastic sense of humour that she uses as a defence.
"(Producer) Mark Platt was like, 'Listen, I promise you that Don will be uncompromising. He's not going to make her cute, he will definitely allow her to be as difficult as she reads on the page.' "
Portman, who made a striking film debut in 1994 as a child assassin-in-training in The Professional, said the role of Amelia also continues to show audiences that she's actually a grown-up, something she established with an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe win for her work as a stripper in 2004's Closer.
"It's weird 'cause I feel like people don't necessarily think of me as a woman yet, but I'm almost 30 now. I'm like, 28 ... I'm closer to 30 than 20. And I'm like, 'Oh, my God!' And so you want to be reflecting things more that are expressions of womanhood, as opposed to little girlness."
When a reporter suggests that that's something that can wait until she's 40, Portman shrugs.
"You never know. By the time I'm 40 I think people will probably be sick of me. They'll be like, 'Thirty years of this s---! Enough!' "
Portman, who has dated some equally famous men while growing up in the public eye, also agreed that love continues to be an impossible pursuit for her.
"Yes!" she said, laughing.
"It's going to happen," Roos said. "She's a nice Jewish girl. There's a doctor and a dentist, a therapist, a lawyer out there for you ... You will find him."
Interview magazine found out when they asked Gyllenhaal, who co-stars with Portman in this fall's war drama Brothers, to ask about her favorite foods, music and frightening 80s cartoons.
Portman's favorite food? "Well, I don't think you can really improve upon Carvel ice cream cake," she says in magazine's September issue. Gyllenhaal shared that he is more of a Baskin-Robbins guy, partially because he had read that the Obamas shared their first kiss over 31 flavors.
Gyllenhaal then moved onto Portman's favorite music, asking her, "What song best describes your current state?"
"I've mostly been listening to dirty rap lately. That's sort of my scene," she says. "Really, really obscene hip-hop. I love it so much. It makes me laugh and then it makes me want to dance." (She then recited some X-rated lyrics from the Ying Yang Twins.)
The actor also found out what really scares Portman: Smurfs. "Because that bad guy, Gargamel, was so terrifying. I was scared of a lot of cartoons. I'm kind of wussy like that," Portman explains.
Another confession – if she weren't an actress, she would be qualified to be a bike messenger. "I can make chitchat, but not much else," she says. "I'd basically have trouble with any job that doesn't require me to wear silly clothes and talk in funny voices."
Garcia's drama also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits and Shareeka Epps, and will unspool at the Roy Thomson Hall in a gala slot.
In "Pursuits," Portman, who replaced Jennifer Lopez in the lead, plays a woman trying to save her marriage with the help of her precocious stepson.
Also getting high-profile North American premieres at the Toronto fest, which runs September 10-19, are Grant Heslov's "The Men Who Stare at Goats," a thriller that stars George Clooney and Ewan McGregor; Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar's "Agora," which stars Rachel Weisz; and French director Jan Kounen's "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky."
There's also a gala world premiere for Carlos Saura's "I, Don Giovanni," a period drama about the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and an international premiere for "Phantom Pain," from German director Matthias Emcke and starring Til Schweiger.
Festival programmers also added to the Special Presentations sidebar the world premiere of French director Christian Carion's Cold War thriller "L'Affaire Farewell" and U.S. director Derrick Borte's "The Joneses," a comedic drama starring Demi Moore and David Duchovny as a picture-perfect American couple found wanting by their neighbors.
Also Toronto-bound is Werner Herzog's "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done" and John Hillcoat's "The Road," a post-apocalyptic survival tale starring Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce.
There's also a world bow for Indian director Dev Benegal's "Road, Movie," and a North American bow for Tom Ford's "A Single Man," which features Colin Firth as a British professor in 1962 Los Angeles finding meaning in a friend's death. The picture also stars Julianne Moore and Matthew Goode.
Is "Thor" a comic-book movie or a Shakespeare adaptation?
Portman will join Branagh, Hiddleston and star Chris Hemsworth for Marvel Comics' version of the Norse god of thunder, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She'll play Jane Foster, in the comic books a nurse working for Dr. Donald Blake, who is secretly Thor.
No word yet on the plot or how it'll tie into Marvel's other big-screen properties, though when evil trickster-god Loki (played by Hiddleston) is around, reality tends to shudder.
Filming on "Thor" begins early next year. The movie is scheduled to hit theaters May 20, 2011.
"Swan" -- a supernatural thriller set in the world of New York City ballet -- was set up in early 2007 at Universal, but the studio eventually dropped the project. It has been making the rounds of studios and specialty divisions.
"Swan" centers on a veteran ballerina who finds herself locked in a competitive situation with a rival dancer, with the stakes and twists increasing as the dancers approach a big performance. But it's unclear whether the rival is a supernatural apparition or if the protagonist is deluded.
Those who have read the script say it's a spine-tingler with elements of "The Others."
Aronofsky, whose acclaimed Mickey Rourke-starring drama "The Wrestler" has put him in high demand, has been developing the "Robocop" reboot at MGM.
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Written by Ben Best and McBride, the Universal Pictures project centers on an arrogant, lazy prince (McBride) who must complete a quest to save his father's kingdom. Joining him on the quest is McBride's more heroic brother, played by Franco.
Portman will play McBride's love interest, a warrior princess.
Director David Gordon Green ("Pineapple Express," "All the Real Girls") is shooting the film this summer in Northern Ireland.
Portman is working on "Hesher," an indie drama that marks her inauguration as a producer. She next stars with Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire in the drama "Brothers," a remake of Susanne Bier's Danish film.
The 27-year-old actress is firmly denying rumors that she and reigning Best Actor Sean Penn are an item.
"Sean Penn is a friend and colleague," the star of the upcoming New York, I Love You said in a statement to Extra Friday. "The reports that we are romantically involved are completely untrue. I normally do not respond to rumors about my private life, however, this repeatedly fabricated story has forced me to do so."
And the rumors have been out there—a tabloid report that the May-December duo were canoodling in a West Hollywood bar barely two weeks after Penn, 48, filed for a legal separation from his wife of 13 year, Robin Wright Penn, metamorphosed into full-fledged "they're together" stories.
We know that Penn and Portman served on the 2008 Cannes Film Festival jury together, but otherwise... only anonymous sources are claiming to know anything else.
Portman split up with folk-rock singer Devendra Banhart last fall.
Thursday, the actress, along with business partner Christine Aylward, launched a behind-the-scenes entertainment web portal called MakingOf, and spoke about the project at the Apple Store in New York City, as an element of the Tribeca Film Festival. During her address to fans, she all but promised a beauty campaign was not in her future (perhaps she's still a bit burned by the failure of her shoe line).
"I don't have a problem with making money, but I don't believe in doing something you don't believe in to make money, like a makeup campaign or something like that—the opportunities that young actors have all the time," she says. "[MakingOf] is an exciting model to do something you really believe in and create something positive out of that…It's possible to do something positive in the world that’s still entrepreneurial."
That positive thing is a website aimed at all brands of film junkies and filled with interviews with filmmakers showing all angles of the industry—composers, costume designers, editors and more.
"The goal is really to be a comprehensive, centralized place for people who want to learn about film if it's specific aspects like how they got that cool explosion in the Bond movie or the serious film student wondering what lens they used when they shot that midnight scene or whatever," she explains to E! News. "We want to have that range and also cover departments that aren't typically covered in entertainment news."
The idea, she says, came to her "off-the-cuff" during a dinner with Aylward, whom she met on a film set in Madrid (presumably Goya's Ghosts), and other friends. Months later, Aylward came back to it and they agreed to "really make this happen."
On the site already, Jason Bateman offers advice on auditions, Billy Bob Thornton shares his insecurities, West Wing writer Aaron Sorkin explains how he picks a project, Ron Howard recalls his start and, of course, Portman offers her experience being a first-time director (she recently shot two shorts). However, the former Star Wars queen promises the site won't be simply an ego booster for her.
"I'm not intending for it to be about me," she says. "Obviously, I'm featured in an interview, but the goal is really for people who are interested in filmmaking to have access to all these different components. I'm not gonna make you guys get sick of me by being featured in every section."
As for the technical aspects, the self-proclaimed "near-luddite" claims she's not too tech-savvy. She tells E! News exclusively, "I'm not on the internet that much but I have a BlackBerry, so I definitely email nonstop all day long. But not that much time on the actual computer.
"And I've never Twittered before."
Turns out the Toronto rapper, whose real name is Kevin Brereton, is a fan of both Portman and Star Wars, in which she appeared as Padme Amidala but the tune is more about her homeland than anything else.
"I think Natalie Portman is the best America has to offer, the ideal that America has to offer," said k-os, who sampled Phantom Planet's California on the song.
"I think it's my subversive thing on, 'Go south, Kevin.' I was afraid of America for a long time. When I toured, I opened for a band called Gym Class Heroes, and it was the first time I went to Alabama, Oklahoma, New Orleans. It blew my mind because I had considered myself a fairly well-read, intelligent person (but I ) had all these preconcieved notions about America based on press and I was meeting amazing people every time, every night, so that and Obama becoming president, totally made me cut ties with fear of America. So I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman over this California beat is kind of like I'm ready to sort of immerse myself in that. Maybe it's not really necessarily about being a superfan of a beautiful woman."
K-os said he didn't know if Portman knew about the song: "But I hope she finds out."
Pitt and Portman have signed on for the adaptation of Leanne Sharpton's (deep breath) "Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry," according to Variety. The transition from Sharpton's novel to the big screen should be interesting, to say the least: "Important Artifacts" reveals the characters not through narrative but via a mock auction catalog, leaving readers to explore the relationship based on the items for sale and their descriptions.
Instead, Variety says the film will be a romantic comedy with Pitt and Portman in the title roles.
Pitt, 45, will co-star this year in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds." Portman, 27, last starred opposite Scarlett Johansson in "The Other Boleyn Girl."
"[Portman] seemed really into him, and went right up to say hello once she spotted him," dished a close Pattinson chum at the exclusive do.
So what was the Twilight star and Oscar presenter all jittery about, then? Well...
Before his encounter, Rob told us how anxious he was about presenting. "I was so nervous [about the Oscars]" the cute Brit told us, sexy accent 'n' all.
So how did the guy take the edge off?
"Whiskey and Natalie Portman," dished the R.P. pal.
Robert, who flew solo, shy and rather lonely most of the glittering night, found a fan in the gorgeous Nat. Ms. P, who also had a little whatever with Ryan Gosling recently, was pretty and piranha-like in fuchsia.
The two totally flirted it up outside on the patio, and Rob started to feel right at home in his newly found Hollywood lifestyle.
N.P. was batting those beautiful eyelashes at Pattinson, and he seemed to be enjoying every minute of it. And there were a lot of minutes. I think Ms. P's used to getting what she wants, as she dominated R.P.'s attentions most of the evening.
But fear not, ladies (and gents, too), it looks like Robalie's just in the crush stage 'cause Mr. P was seen leaving sans Portman at the end of the night.
Damn, would they have hot kids or what?
At first we thought this was some kind of marketing ruse by Blackberry to regain the chic demographic from the ascendant iPhone: Buy a used 'berry and maybe you'll get the number for Halle Berry.
But it turns out to be just a simple blunder. According to U.K. tabloid, The Mirror, clerk Kent Devey recognized some famous names in his phone's address book: "I told my brother and he didn't believe it, so we decided to ring a couple of numbers.
"When I got Julie Walters' answer phone, I was speechless." Speaking of speechless. Really? Julie Walters? Love her, but given the option we're pretty sure we would have dialed Natalie Portman.
Proving that not even celebrities are immune to the country's economic crisis, the actress' vegan shoe line of less than a year, the Natalie Portman Collection for Té Casan, has closed up shop, making it even more of a limited-edition than expected.
The critter-free line of footwear, announced by the longtime vegetarian back in January, was launched in February of this year to the delight of animal-loving fashionistas but not so much to the credit-crunched masses—each pair retailed on average for $200.
However, Portman's line didn't fail on its own merits, instead was a casualty of the folding of its parent company, Té Casan, which closed up shop for good last month.
The company's website, too, has wasted no time in closing down. It's unclear whether Portman will seek to continue her vegan venture with another partnership.
Portman, 27, began dating Banhart, also 27, after starring in his "Carmensita" video, which was shot last March. A short time later, they took their romance public when they were spotting kissing on the streets of New York and over a sushi dinner at Jewel Bako.
A fan of Banhart's music, Portman had asked him to donate a track to the charity compilation she curated on iTunes, Big Change: Songs for FINCA. She returned the favor by forgoing her usual fee to appear in the video.
"They got together right after the video shoot," a source said at the time.
They also traveled together to Cannes and to Israel.
"Eve," screening out of competition in the Venice short film section, stars Hollywood veterans Lauren Bacall and Ben Gazzara as the witty grandmother and the widower who takes her out for dinner. Early reviews have been positive.
Portman, 27, said she had always had a fascination with the older generation, and drew inspiration for Bacall's character from her own grandmother.
"The film was definitely inspired by personal experience and also all my friends, female friends, starting to define themselves in relation, and in reaction to, their mothers and their grandmothers," the Oscar-nominated actress told a news conference.
Having started her acting career as a child, she said that she had long wanted to be on the other side of the camera and will present a second short work at the Toronto film festival which starts later this week.
"We have so much time off between films as actors that you tend to get restless and you want a creative outlet, and there is not always acting work that fulfils that need," she said.
"I have been working now in films for 16 years...it was exciting to know what a director goes through and also to create something completely on your own.
"When you are an actor of course you are creating something but you are serving someone else's vision and ultimately it's someone else's creation. To have authorship is ... and feels like a more adult job," she added.
Getting Bacall on board was like fulfilling her "wildest dream," Portman said.
"It's so exciting to see someone with that much experience and that much wisdom on screen. It's rare."
Portman, who shot to fame as a teenager befriending a professional killer in Luc Besson's 1990s hit "Leon," has featured as Padme in the second Star Wars trilogy and won an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress in "Closer."
The Garden State and Star Wars beauty received the first-ever "Movie for Humanity Award" at the Venice Film Festival for her work with social and environmental programs.
Given to film artists who devote themselves to humanitarian causes, the Oscar-nominee donated her $50,000 prize to the Jane Goodall Institute in Tanzania, where Portman supports the Tacare Girl's Scholarship Program.
"The Jane Goodall foundation does incredible work in Tanzania, an area which is very environmentally affected. I really appreciate this award," Portman said.
The 27-year-old actress is presenting her directorial debut at the festival, a short film called Eve.
Portman's 17-minute "Eve," which Venice organizers called "a civilized comedy," stars Lauren Bacall and Ben Gazzara. It will screen in an out-of-competition slot.
The festival runs August 27-September 6.
Finance and sales company HanWay Films hopes to have a replacement for Portman in the role of Cathy "within days."
But the American actress' exit is no small matter for HanWay and the film's producers, especially because it arose just days before the Cannes film festival, during which the movie is to be sold to international distributors.
Local press reports here put the smart money on a British replacement for Portman. For his part, Maybury ("Love Is the Devil," "The Jacket") is of the opinion that the famous English role should go to someone from these shores.
Written by Olivia Hetreed, who also undertook the adaptation of "Girl With a Pearl Earring," the new adaptation plans to steer away from "the stuffy costume drama" format.
Emily Bronte's novel details the intense love story between the rich Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling brought from the slums of Liverpool.
According the the industry trades, John Maybury is directing from a script by Olivia Hetreed. Ecosse Films is producing.
Portman will play Catherine Earnshaw, the upper crust woman whose burning passion for her brooding foster brother Heathcliff leads to an awful lot of tortured romance and misery for everybody.
Bronte's book remains a staple on high school English curriculums more than 160 years after its publications. While recent adaptations include a 2003 MTV telefilm with Erika Christensen and Mike Vogel and a 1992 project starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes, the 1939 feature with Laurence Olivier is still considered the definitive filmed production.
Portman most recently donned period duds for this spring's "The Other Boleyn Girl." If you live in a major city, you can currently see the "V for Vendetta" star in "My Blueberry Nights." Otherwise, you may need to wait for the release of "Brothers" later this year.
Non-partisan – and unaffiliated with the presidential election – Portman's spot focuses on the importance of participating in the democratic process. "To vote is to express yourself," she says.
Tethered to a new documentary Chicago 10, about protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Portman's message also directs viewers to Takepart, a forum that allows for the discussion of current political issues of concern. Watch the PSA here!
At times it strains to be a stately period drama about 16th-century political intrigue. Then it devolves into soap opera muck and emerges as a rather tame bodice ripper.
It's not that a good production can't be both a thrilling tale of historical intrigue and sensual adventures, but this film doesn't convince in either category.
Based on Philippa Gregory's 1992 novel, the visuals are artful, as is the production design. It's the lack of character development and the plodding story that keep the audience from becoming engaged.
The Boleyn sisters — Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary (Scarlett Johansson) — vie for the attentions of the womanizing King Henry VIII (Eric Bana), initially spurred on by the ruthless machinations of their social-climbing father (Mark Rylance) and conniving uncle, the Duke of Norfolk (David Morrissey). Only the girls' mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) sees the folly that will come of using their daughters to gain royal status for the family.
Mary is pure of heart and falls in love with Henry, becoming his mistress. Anne, who had hoped to become his consort, is deeply jealous of her sister. Fueled by pettiness and vengeance over what she considers her sister's betrayal, she calculatingly dazzles Henry, persuading him to leave his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and defy the Catholic Church to marry her.
The story is more about the girls' sibling rivalry than it is about Henry VIII's dalliances or his historic split with the church. The ambitions and single-minded quest for power of the girls' father and uncle come off as clichéd, muting the sense of outrage we are surely supposed to be feeling. Morrissey and Rylance are stock villains, and Mary feels like a medieval Melanie from Gone With the Wind to Anne's Scarlett O'Hara. In Wind, we had a sense of what motivated those women. Here, they seem like cardboard cutouts.
Another flaw lies in the depiction of Henry. He must have been more complex than the simple skirt-chaser he is made out to be. He boasts of his ability to judge character and see through artifice and is drawn to Mary because of her guileless nature. Yet, seemingly overnight he falls under the sway of the relentless and seductive Anne with unconvincing gullibility. More must have been at play for Henry to be so easily controlled by this diva.
Anne is spurred not by love but by power. She yearns to be queen, but as anyone with a little knowledge of history knows, her determination leads to her demise.
The story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn has been told before. The 1969 drama Anne of the Thousand Days, starring Richard Burton and Genevieve Bujold, was a far more compelling piece of historical fiction than this oversimplified, overheated mediocre melodrama.
ABOUT THE MOVIE: The Other Boleyn Girl
* * (out of four)
Stars: Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, Kristin Scott Thomas
Director: Justin Chadwick
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexual content and some violent images
Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Opens Friday nationwide
Add hunky Eric Bana to the mix as Henry VIII, jumping back and forth between these two contrasting beauties in his fiery youth, and the possibilities seemed even more intriguing.
Instead, "The Other Boleyn Girl" too often comes off as an unintentionally campy, highbrow soap opera — albeit one with elaborate production design and richly textured costumes (the work of Sandy Powell, an Oscar winner for "Shakespeare in Love" and "The Aviator").
Director Justin Chadwick's film, based on the best-selling novel by Philippa Gregory, looks great, the high-definition heightening both the grit and glamour of 16th-century England. But surprisingly, the script from Peter Morgan, who had a terrific year in 2006 between "The Queen" and "The Last King of Scotland," vacillates awkwardly between sexy romp and serious — and seriously violent — period piece.
The American actresses, putting on British accents, seem ill at ease at first, but Johansson settles nicely into her role as the Boleyn sister with more complex, conflicting emotions of love and loyalty. It's another example of the range that exists within this young actress, who's lately been in need of a hit. (This ain't it.)
Portman's Anne Boleyn is all ruthless flirting and conniving, but she can't quite pull it off; rather, it feels as if we're watching the petite starlet playing dress-up for a high school production. (Her transformation into the Queen of England is a bit more palatable, though, than her reign as Queen Amidala of Naboo in "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.")
When we first meet the Boleyn girls as children, they're frolicking with their brother, George (played as an adult by Jim Sturgess from "Across the Universe") in a meadow at their country estate. Eventually word comes that the King of England is frustrated by the inability of Queen Katherine of Aragon (Spanish actress Ana Torrent) to produce a male heir.
So the girls' father, Sir Thomas Boleyn (Mark Rylance), and his brother-in-law, the Duke of Norfolk (the brashly villainous David Morrissey), hatch a scheme to invite the king for a hunting trip and trot the saucy Anne before him. They hope that if he finds her pleasing, he'll take her as his mistress, she'll get knocked up, pop out a boy, and voila! The whole family will benefit financially. This would be known as "pimping out" — and the girls' mother, played by a steely Kristin Scott Thomas, understandably is not amused.
But what ends up happening is, Henry finds himself attracted to the innocent, fair-haired Mary instead, and doesn't care that she's just gotten married to the equally innocent, fair-haired William Carey (Benedict Cumberbatch). The king invites the whole family to court, including Mary's namby-pamby husband, and proceeds to seduce her.
Thus begins a series of pregnancies and miscarriages, crosses and double-crosses, interspersed with long stomps down stone corridors and the clomping of horse hooves. Anne is shipped off to France for potentially embarrassing the family but returns educated, sharp-tongued and more ambitious than ever (in a dazzler of an emerald-green gown). Now the king finds himself drawn to her, which seems illogical the way it's quickly and superficially depicted here; Henry brags of his ability to see through people's intentions, hence his attraction to the guileless Mary, yet it's the exact opposite behavior in Anne that ultimately turns his head.
Through it all, the sisters' loyalty is tested. Anne is all too happy to turn her back on Mary in pursuit of the throne — and even revels in getting a few digs in, asking the pregnant Mary, "Do you feel as awful as you look?" But except for a hissy fit here and there, and of course a breakdown at her climactic, final moment, it's a one-note performance of pure, unabashed social climbing.
Your eyes will probably roll before anyone's head does.
"The Other Boleyn Girl," a Columbia Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexual content and some violent images. Running time: 114 minutes. Two stars out of four.
The show said it pulled the story "out of respect for Heath Ledger's family." But don't discount the effect of a lightning-fast campaign launched by a public relations firm that represents many of the stars "Entertainment Tonight" depends upon for stories.
Even some celebrities themselves — Natalie Portman and Sarah Jessica Parker, to name a couple — called to urge "ET" to pull the plug.
Ledger, 28, died in his Manhattan apartment Jan. 22. Authorities suspect a possible drug overdose, but the cause of his death is still pending the outcome of toxicology tests. Police said several prescription drugs — but nothing illegal — were found in the Manhattan apartment where the "Brokeback Mountain" actor's body was found.
"Entertainment Tonight" is hardly the lone news organization to broach the topic of potential drug abuse by the star. But the video it acquired, reportedly taken two years ago at a party at the Chateau Marmont Hotel, drew the fiercest attention.
The syndicated magazine's sister show, "The Insider," aired a "preview" of the story that it had planned to run Thursday that actually showed several segments of the video. Following the protest, "The Insider" yanked the segment from the West Coast version of its telecast.
Ledger is seen standing in the doorway of a room where the party was taking place, swigging from a beer bottle. The actor is heard saying that he was "going to get serious (word bleeped) from my girlfriend" for being at the party.
The show made clear that there was nothing on the video showing Ledger taking any drug. At one point, however, the then-26-year-old said he "used to smoke five joints a day."
But a person who has seen the entire video, who asked not to be identified because of its sensitive nature, said Ledger then points to his tattoo of "M" (for his daughter, Matilda Rose) and says, "this is to remind me never to smoke weed again." That part of the quote was not used in Wednesday's preview.
Later, with Ledger in the background, an unidentified man, his face blurred, seems to snort cocaine from a table.
After seeing a promotion for the show Wednesday, a publicist at ID, Ledger's public relations firm, called "Entertainment Tonight" and asked that the segment be pulled. The request was refused.
ID then composed a three-paragraph protest letter that it distributed to some 30 other public relations firms around Hollywood, asking them to tell their clients about what was about to happen. The circle included powerhouse publicists like PMK-HBH, 42 West and BWR.
The letter said "ET" had paid a large sum of money for the video to stir up an exploitive story about Ledger.
"For the sake of his grieving family and friends, his child and common decency, we hope to pressure `Entertainment Tonight' and `The Insider' to do the right thing and pull the spot," the letter said. "This is not journalism, it is sensationalism. It is a shameful exploitation of the lowest kind, to a talented and gentle soul, undeserving of such treatment."
Stars, studio executives and PR firms all called "ET" to register protests, said Kelly Bush, CEO of ID. The star-studded roster of Bush's firm alone includes Robin Williams, Sean Penn, Tobey Maguire, Mike Myers, Jennifer Hudson, Katie Holmes, Ellen DeGeneres, and Ledger's "Brokeback" co-star Jake Gyllenhaal.
Bush said the response was unlike anything she'd ever seen.
"I hope it represents a turning point," she said. "I think we have all heard from members of the media and members of the public that it's too much. Britney Spears and Paris Hilton are the top news stories when Darfur should be."
No boycott was threatened, she said. But when a television show that needs celebrities like living things need oxygen hears from so many powerful sources, a threat probably wasn't necessary.
Not a spoken one, anyway.
"We need them as much as they need us," Bush said. She wouldn't speculate on what made "Entertainment Tonight" change its mind, but said "they've probably never gotten this much heat before over anything."
Executives at "Entertainment Tonight" refused to talk publicly about the retreat. There was some bewilderment and anger at the company about why its show was singled out when many other publications and TV outlets were talking about the same thing. The party video is likely to be seen soon in England, and is already available over the Internet.
But "ET" can't complain about getting nothing for its money. Even though it was called a "preview," "The Insider" already aired a significant story with salient portions of the video, while maintaining the appearance of having taken the high road in the end.
Drew Pinsky, star of VH1's "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew," backed "Entertainment Tonight." He saw the video and was quoted by the show, calling it "heartbreaking."
"When a 28-year-old seemingly healthy man, whom we love and respect, dies suddenly, there is a reason," Pinsky said. "His death plays upon our deepest fears. We owe it to the public to try to answer the question why. I am convinced that if this heart-wrenching video had aired, it would have gotten through and had a positive effect on young people in America. Perhaps it could have even saved some lives."
Also unanswered are questions about how much the Hollywood friends who jumped to Ledger's defense this week knew about any drug use while he was alive, and what they had done to help him. Few of the people close to Ledger have come forth with statements since his death, and those who have chose not to broach the topic of any possible drug use.
One notable exception was Lee Daniels, who produced "Monster's Ball," in which Ledger starred.
"The definition of substance abuse is really up to one's perspective," Daniels told The Associated Press last week. "I didn't see him as a drug addict. I saw him as someone who enjoyed life. I know drug addicts; he was not a drug addict."
The Golden Globe-winning actress, and longtime vegetarian, has teamed with the New York label Té Casan to design her own line of vegan-friendly footwear, a collaboration that has aptly, if not predictably, been dubbed the Natalie Portman Collection.
Designs for the shoe line have yet to be revealed, save for one pair of red patent high-heeled Mary-Janes, which the 25-year-old sports on the chic label's Website.
As well as being made without animal ingredients—no fur, no leather, no feathers—5 percent of the range's profits will be donated to charity, which could quickly add up to a hefty sum.
While the kicks are decidedly critter friendly, they may be less kind to consumers' wallets, with each pair expected to retail for around $200. The Natalie Portmans won't officially be made available until February, though impatient or trend-savvy shoppers can preorder through the Té Casan site as early as Jan. 15.
While Portman herself is a vegetarian of 17 years, though not a vegan, she has long refused to wear animal products in either her personal life or on the red carpet and has previously touted the footwear made by fellow vegan-happy designers Stella McCartney and, because even A-listers like a good deal, Target.
In November of last year, she told London's Guardian that while she refused to wear leather, she did dabble in wool, "although I don't think I have a lot of wool clothes. And I sort of made a no-buying-anything-new rule. I just have a lot of stuff."
"I figured, Look, if I need something, if my running shoes have holes in them and I don't have running shoes any more, then I'll get new ones."
Perhaps from her own line.
Unfortunately, curious shoppers will have to wait slightly longer to see if Portman got sporty with her collection, as the only pair currently on show is the decidedly dressy Mary-Jane.
Shoes aren't the only way the young actress is engaging in ethical and animal-friendly living. Last year, Portman traveled to Rwanda with animal expert Jack Hanna to shoot the documentary Gorillas on the Brink, as one of Animal Planet's Saving a Species-branded specials.
The year's films made skinematic history as Mr. Skin, as featured in "Knocked Up," was presented with such a wealth of nakedness on the silver screen, he had to compile his Top 20 list of films in which talented actresses took it off.
"2007 was a surprisingly strong year for big-screen nudity," noted Mr. Skin from his Chicago headquarters. "In fact, you could say it ranks among this decade's very breast!"
Topping the list was Tomei in Sidney Lumet's crime drama "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." In the film, she's seen opening the movie with some nudity topside and later similarly displays herself to advantage after an illicit tryst. Oh yeah, and Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman also star in the heist movie.
Not one to be labeled an anglophobic philistine, Mr. Skin traveled across the pond to celebrate British beauty Keeley Hazell in the art house flick "Cashback." The former Page 3 girl gets her assets unveiled in the film when a supermarket clerk takes advantage of his newfound ability to freeze time.
The remainder of the Top 20 are as follows:
3. Natalie Portman in "Hotel Chevalier" - The acclaimed actress gets cheeky when she drops her drawers for this short film that's a companion piece to "The Darjeeling Limited."
4. Christina Ricci in "Black Snake Moan" - Her skimpy top can't contain her talent in this Southern gothic potboiler, even if she is chained to a radiator.
5. Sienna Miller in "Factory Girl" - Twenty-one minutes into the film about Andy Warhol's muse, Miller soaks naked in a tub.
6. Roselyn Sanchez in "Yellow" -The actress' character just wants to be a Broadway dancer, but of course, must strip in order to get there.
7. Malin Ackerman in "The Heartbreak Kid" - An acrobatic sex act opposite Ben Stiller allows this actress to show off more than just her flexibility.
8. Eva Mendes in "We Own the Night" - Very early into the film, the starlet shows one reason why she deserves to be on this list. Yep, just one, but it's a compelling one.
9. Lena Headey in "300" - Sure, the men got to show off their abs, but Headey shows she's no slouch in the skin department during a poetic love scene.
10. Stormy Daniels and Nautica Thorne in "Knocked Up" -Lapdancers in Vegas give the main character and his pal an eyeful up close and personal.
11. Alexa Davalos in "Feast of Love" - Selma Blair and Radha Mitchell also get naked, but it's Davalos' full frontal that makes her stand out.
12. Chelan Simmons in "Good Luck Chuck" - Seven different women take off their tops for the camera, including the "Kyle XY" cutie.
13. Wei Tang in "Lust, Caution" - This Ang Lee follow-up to "Brokeback Mountain" takes a while to build up, and then watch out. The Chinese starlet engages in lots and lots of sex to take down a political figure, and her dedication is on display fully from the front and back.
14. Ashley Judd in "Bug" - Mental illness, gasoline and frontal and dorsal nudity.
15. Olivia Wilde in "Alpha Dog" - Three other actresses show skin, including Amanda Seyfried ("Mean Girls") for a skinny-dipping adventure, but Wilde got the mention for her motel tryst.
16. Ana Claudia Talancon in "Alone With Her" - A peeping Tom's use of high-tech spying gadgetry pays off many, many times, including once with a steamy shower.
17. Danielle Harris in "Halloween" - More skin than the original.
18. Heather Matarazzo in "Hostel: Part II" -If you like your nudity disturbing, bloody and hung upside down, this is the movie for you.
19. Amber Valetta in "The Last Time" -This supermodel isn't wearing haute couture or doing runway.
20. Lucy Liu in "Blood Hunter" -Nudity in a vampire flick? Bloody likely! Cameron Richardson and Samaire Armstrong take it off, but it's Liu's topless turn in a lesbian tussle with Carla Gugino.
Mr. Skin and his team of "skinvestigators" view all non-adult titles for their nudity content and rates them on their "skintensity."
Most of the action takes place in the vividly hued shop with eye-catching and fanciful toys and one-of-a-kind gadgets. While there are moments of sweetness in the story, the film's dazzling production design is the highlight.
Dustin Hoffman plays the title character as a mysterious quasi-mythical being. But the fantasy never fully takes hold to carry us away. Perhaps children will be more transported than adults, but with the focus on shy Molly (Natalie Portman) and the lovably eccentric Magorium, the magical toys aren't given enough opportunity to captivate. Molly faces a big decision when Magorium bequeaths her his store.
Writer/director Zach Helm, who wrote Stranger Than Fiction, achieves bursts of charm and whimsy, but not quite enough magic to elicit a consistent sense of wonderment. (Rated G. Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes.)
"I'm not convinced about marriage," the actress, 26, tells In Style in its December issue. "Divorce is so easy, and that fact that gay people are not allowed to marry takes much of the meaning out of it. ... Committing yourself to one person is sacred."
Not that she's opposed to the commitments and challenges of a relationship outside of marriage. The star of Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, who has been linked this year with fashion entrepreneur Nathan Bogle, declines to discuss her romantic life in detail, but she says in general that her ideal partner is "someone who pulls me up to high standards, and who is aware of what's going on in themselves and in the world."
That awareness of the world, in particular, is a major theme for Portman, whose extensive travels, she says, have taught her to respect the Earth and its environment. "If we can find ways to love life and be joyful without being wasteful or destructive – that's what's important," she says.
One part of that, for Portman, involves being a vegetarian – from head to toe. "Every time I dress I know I'm not wearing leather, and that's a great feeling," she says.
For help in achieving her goals, personal and professional, she says she relies on mentors. "Yes, absolutely," she says. "My parents, of course, but there's guidance that can't come from them. Parents are protective. Other mentors say, 'Go do it, show 'em and see how you feel.' "
In the director's chair for the first time, Zach Helm juggles some of the same themes he brought to his script for "Stranger Than Fiction" -- the process of storytelling, fear of death and the need to live life to the fullest. As in that movie, there's less here than meets the eye, but without the former's Charlie Kaufman Lite layers of metafiction, the emptiness is often glaringly evident. Helm's slender tale doesn't quite know what to do with its four characters; what might have been pleasing simplicity instead feels thinly conceived. As family-friendly fare starring Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman, the fantasy drama should conjure up decent, if not magical, box office.
Divided into storybook chapters, the film begins at "the beginning of the end" for Mr. Magorium, who, at age 243, is preparing to depart this earthly plane because -- well, enough is enough, and he's out of shoes. For the past 113 years he has run the titular establishment, a sort of enchanted indie FAO Schwarz. Hoffman plays the toy impresario in teased 'do and unruly eyebrows and with a wispy, silly voice. The performance isn't a flat-out miscalculation like Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka, but as oddities go, it's more distracting than compelling.
Magorium plans to bequeath his shop, a storefront/house sandwiched between skyscrapers, to its manager, Molly Mahoney (a convincingly tentative Portman). At 23, she's a onetime musical prodigy who feels stuck, unable to complete the concerto she's been trying to compose. She has a fondness for Emporium regular Eric (Zach Mills), a sweetly geeky 9-year-old who has a knack for invention and troublemaking friends. He tries out his nascent social skills on Henry Weston (Jason Bateman), the accountant Magorium has hired to put his finances in order. Being an accountant, Henry is necessarily an impassive skeptic who can't accept that magic exists. He will, of course, be convinced.
For her part, Molly can't accept that her beloved boss is leaving. Neither can the store, whose red walls begin turning gray -- decor body language for a sulk. The books and stuffed animals start acting out, too, until full-fledged magic mayhem forces Magorium to close shop temporarily.
Within the Crayola-hued profusion created by production designer Therese DePrez and costumer designer Christopher Hargadon, there are lovely fillips, and visual effects designer Kevin Tod Haug brings high-spirited contributions to the low-fi fantasy. There's not a PlayStation 3 in sight but plenty of such delightful diversions as a squeak-toy gavel, a nervous Slinky, a room full of bouncing balls and a particularly expressive sock monkey.
Until the final sequence, though, the phantasmagoria is mildly charming rather than wondrous. That wouldn't be a problem if the characters had more substance. Chanting a pop-psych carpe diem mantra, the film can't find its own pulse. Helping to set a pace is the lush score by Alexandre Desplat and Aaron Zigman, but its ooh-ahh insistence isn't enough to truly entrance.
Cast:
Mr. Edward Magorium, Avid Shoe-Wearer: Dustin Hoffman
Molly Mahoney, the Composer: Natalie Portman
Henry Weston, the Mutant: Jason Bateman
Eric Applebaum, the Hat Collector: Zach Mills
Bellini, the Bookbuilder: Ted Ludzik
Mrs. Goodman, Who Wants the Store: Kiele Sanchez
Screenwriter-director: Zach Helm; producers: Richard N. Gladstein, Jim Garavente; executive producers: Joe Drake, Nathan Kahane; director of photography: Roman Osin; production designer: Therese DePrez; music: Alexandre Desplat, Aaron Zigman; co-producer: Barbara A. Hall; costume designer: Christopher Hargadon; visual effects designer: Kevin Tod Haug; editors: Sabrina Plisco, Steven Weisberg.
With wild hair and an annoying accent, Dustin Hoffman looks completely uncomfortable as the titular impresario, a childlike eccentric who doesn't just sell toys but whose store is a living being with feelings.
Now, at age 243, he decides it's time to leave (read: die, inexplicably) and hand the keys over to store manager Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman in full-on pixie mode), a former piano prodigy who's stuck creatively. (Ah, the irony — she works at a place that encourages creativity!) Only Mahoney doesn't feel ready for the challenge, and the store throws a temper tantrum to keep Magorium from going.
The whole endeavor feels like the love child of Willy Wonka and Pee-Wee Herman, the kind of movie Tim Burton would have executed with greater richness and dexterity. It's totally one-note in its incessant whimsy, except for those few moments when it treads awkwardly toward the topic of death. Magorium and Mahoney face the prospect of the great beyond by jumping up and down on mattresses at a mattress store and setting all the cuckoo clocks at a clock store to chime at the exact same moment.
Wake me when the wackiness is over.
The most curious part is that this tongue-twister of a movie comes from Zach Helm, who previously wrote the clever, charming "Stranger Than Fiction" starring Will Ferrell (and costarring Hoffman, much more effectively). Here, Helm directs for the first time from a script he wrote when he was 23, inspired by his own experiences working at a toy store.
Helm may know this place intimately, but he feels the need to tell us repeatedly how magical the store is, and to have the characters tell each other. This becomes especially true with the arrival of Jason Bateman as Henry Weston, an uptight accountant who's come to assess the store's worth. (He essentially functions in the same sort of role as Kevin Spacey's efficiency expert in "Fred Claus" — except, you know, without being evil — and his comic skills go almost entirely to waste.)
Henry must be convinced of the emporium's powers; 9-year-old social misfit Eric Applebaum is just the guy for the job. Eric, who has a hat fetish and who visits the store daily because he has no friends, is played by Zach Mills, who appeared as Adrien Brody's son in "Hollywoodland" and shows some precocious likability here.
But his character, like all the others in the film, feels more like a collection of quirks than a real person. While Eric likes hats, for example, Magorium has a thing for shoes. Mahoney dresses in vintage T-shirts and mismatched skirts like some Brooklyn hipster who's trying hard to make it look as if she isn't trying so hard. The only one who ever evolves is Henry, the straight man, and we could see that transformation coming from the minute he hit the door.
"Mr. Magorium" is shot and lighted beautifully, however, the work of cinematographer Roman Osin ("Pride & Prejudice"). That'll be the one thing the wee ones and adults in the audience can agree upon.
"Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," a 20th Century Fox release, is rated G. Running time: 94 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
TV Guide: So how did you get involved with hiking around the jungle?
Natalie Portman: They asked me to go to Rwanda with Jack Hanna to interact with mountain gorillas.... [We spent] five days in Rwanda, then I continued on to Kenya for an eco-safari, and to Uganda for a charity called FINCA I work with that gives loans to poor women.
TV Guide: Do you consider yourself an animal activist?
Portman: I'm an animal lover. I've been a vegetarian for 17 years. I won't wear leather.
TV Guide: How do movie wardrobe people react when you tell them you won't wear animal products?
Portman: They have to make me clothes from fake leather or vintage stuff. That's OK. I'll use recycled material.
TV Guide: How endangered are the mountain gorillas?
Portman: Very endangered. There are fewer than 1,000 left. And they're still being poached. They kill adults and sell babies on the black market.
TV Guide: How close did you get?
Portman: Five feet! But we couldn't touch them because they catch cold so easily. On our first day out, we happened upon a lone young silverback male... sitting right in our path!
TV Guide: What was the most affecting moment in Rwanda?
Portman: I got to name a baby gorilla at a big ceremony, which was an honor. I named mine Gukina, which means "to play".... All the babies were so playful.
TV Guide: What's your next movie?
Portman: Mr. Magorian's Wonder Emporium, a kids movie with Dustin Hoffman, who was really fun.... I play an assistant toy-store manager.
TV Guide: You're also in The Other Boleyn Girl. Was it intimidating to play Anne Boleyn?
Portman: Absolutely. I worked very hard to master the accent and to make everything as accurate as can be. She's an iconic figure in England.
The magazine put out a release Thursday with some of Portman's quotes to tease Sunday's issue – but one of the quotes was incorrect, Parade said later. The magazine quickly sent out a new statement clarifying exactly which nude scene the actress was displeased with having done:
"In the release, we say that Portman regrets doing a nude scene in the movie Hotel Chevalier. This is wrong. When Portman writes about this in Parade, she does not mention a specific movie title," according to the statement. "However, she tells us she was referring to a torture scene with a body double in Goya's Ghosts, which was taken out of context and leaked onto the internet. Portman is very happy with Hotel Chevalier and proud of her work in the film. PARADE apologizes for the error."
Aside from providing a distraction from publicity over "Darjeeling" star Owen Wilson's late-August suicide attempt, the big-screen "Chevalier" bow also capitalizes on Portman's decision to do nude scenes after years spent resisting it.
The actress asked Mike Nichols to remove the nudity from her Oscar-nominated portrayal of a stripper in 2004's "Closer," and used a body double in Milos Forman's 2006 release "Goya's Ghosts."
When asked why she agreed to do the brief scenes, Portman said, "I don't know why, exactly. Sometimes you make rules for yourself and sometimes those rules are made to be broken. You have to test things out and see what works for you, and this felt right."
"I begged Wes to work with me and show me a script" since they met more than three years ago," she told the Hollywood Reporter. "I really loved it. He has the finest taste possible."
Clearly money wasn't part of Portman's motivation. Unlike the $12.5 million Demi Moore received for her topless role in the 1996 bomb "Striptease," she and Schwartzman weren't paid anything for the low-budget, two-day shoot filmed with two cameras donated by Panavision. There's nothing prurient about the two nude shots -- aside from the rear, another shows her like a statue from the side in a pose that wouldn't be out of place in an Annie Leibovitz photo shoot.
Anderson shot "Chevalier" on his own dime a year before the feature and incorporated it as the backstory for "Darjeeling" star/co-screenwriter Jason Schwartzman's character. He debated adding the tale of two estranged lovers into the feature, showing it with the film (as it screened during its New York Film Festival premiere) or keeping the two separate. He decided to release it for free on Apple iTunes Store three days before the September 29 "Darjeeling" limited release and slot it as a DVD extra.
"Darjeeling" has taken in nearly $4 million in its limited release. But while critical reaction has been mixed for Anderson's reunion with his "Rushmore" star Schwartzman, the short has received more widespread acclaim.
Portman's brief, wordless appearance near the end of "Darjeeling" has been as mystifying to many moviegoers as the promotional intro before showings to date, which suggests they download the short to get some background on a film they're just about to watch.
At the Apple Store Soho premiere of "Chevalier" in New York, Anderson voiced several concerns on how to present it, ideally mirroring the jump in time between Schwartzman's character's Parisian romantic interlude and his train trip across India. "Ideally I wanted someone to watch the short, take a break, think about it for a week and then watch the feature," he said.
Like Susanne Bier's 2004 Dutch film, the new brothers will focus on a man (Maguire) who goes off to war and asks his black sheep brother (Gyllenhaal) to watch over his wife (Portman) and child. As one might expect, complications ensue.
Tall, blonde, Danish star Connie Nielsen played the wife role in the original film, but producers seem to have decided to go a different way.
According to Variety, the David Benioff-scripted remake will begin shooting in early November for Relativity Media.
Portman can currently be seen in the frantically downloaded short film "Hotel Chevalier," a companion piece of Wes Anderson's "Darjeeling Limited" (in which Portman also has a fleeting cameo). The "Closer" Oscar nominee will next be seen in "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "My Blueberry Nights."
Its central figure is the great Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco de Goya, in many ways the world's first modern artist. Yet the film displays only passing interest in his art. Its focus instead is on Spain during the horrific period of the Inquisition and Napoleon's conquest, a subject that has its modern-day parallels, but the film never chooses to draw them. Indeed, the story these talented filmmakers tell is a sad, even pathetic tale about tawdry events and cowardly individuals.
The film opened in Europe in November to poor results. Foreign box office stands at $5.9 million, with $2.2 million coming from Spain. "Ghosts" makes its domestic debut Friday in select markets before an expansion August 3. While lavishly produced with exquisite period details and battle scenes, the film seems destined to attract a mostly art house crowd.
Goya (1746-1828) is viewed here -- no doubt with some justification -- as being apolitical, a man interested in his art but not caring who he paints, be it a haughty royal or a Grand Inquisitor. Yet the journalistic and subversive side to his art, especially in his "Caprichos" etchings or painting about Napoleon's invasion of a conservative, priest-ridden Spain, make one wonder if he wasn't a very good actor to maintain such cordial relations with royals and invaders alike while depicting the true horrors of his society.
Goya (Stellan Skarsgard) provides the film's viewpoint, moving easily between the Royal Palace and the streets and taverns of Madrid. The story he bears witness to concerns a young and beautiful daughter (Natalie Portman) of a wealthy Christian merchant, who also is his model. When she is unjustly fingered by the Inquisition for hiding "Jewish practices," she is tortured into a confession that causes the Church to lock her up in a filthy prison to rot.
Her father (Jose Luis Gomez) appeals to Goya to intervene with Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem), a fanatical priest behind the revival of the odious Inquisition. Goya arranges a dinner and the father a sizable bribe, but all the priest manages to do is impregnate the daughter. To demonstrate how easily one can produce "confessions," the father subjects Lorenzo to the same torture as his daughter endured, forcing him to admit to being a monkey. It's difficult to believe, though, that the family would suffer no repercussions for such an outrageous act.
Humiliated and ostracized from the Church, Lorenzo flees Spain only to return 15 years later with Napoleon's army and a portfolio for revenge against the Grand Inquisitor (Michael Lonsdale). He does manage to free his now deranged lover but thoughtlessly consigns her to an asylum. When he finally locates his daughter (Portman in an uncomfortable dual role), he discovers that she has turned to prostitution. His reaction is to arrest and send her to America, where she can't bother him. But the British invade Spain and the tables turn again.
There is truly no one to like in this film. The ex-priest is a human rights abuser of the first order. Goya is too wishy-washy to stand for anything. One young girl goes insane, while her daughter becomes an unrepentant whore. Royals are out of touch with a world in which priests and soldiers inflict rape, barbarity and death on a terrified populace. The only bright spot is Randy Quaid in a humorous turn as a playful King Carlos.
Scenes might suggest some of Goya's more horrific images, but for the most part his art is ignored. His personal life is stripped from him so he may wander through Madrid as our eyes and ears (at least until he becomes deaf). He always manages to be in the room when great historical news arrives -- the execution of the French king or the landing of British forces in Spain.
The script contains one jarring leap in time, an awkward shift in the narration and much telescoping of events, like the British invasion that seemingly takes place a few weeks after Napoleon's arrival when in fact the French stayed for six years.
In general, the filmmakers failed to make several basic decisions before shooting: What are they trying to say, and to whom are they saying it? The good vs. evil is painted too black-and-white to reveal much about the human character. Indeed, a modern sensibility afflicts much of the screenplay, with characters expressing thoughts and opinions for our ears rather than acting as people of that era.
Below-the-line credits are terrific, which only increases an overwhelming sense of disappointment with the film's failed ambitions.
Cast:
Brother Lorenzo: Javier Bardem
Ines/Alicia: Natalie Portman
Goya: Stellan Skarsgard
King Carlos: Randy Quaid
Grand Inquisitor: Michael Lonsdale
Bilbatua: Jose Luis Gomez
Mabel Isabel Bilbatua: Mabel Rivera
Director: Milos Forman; Screenwriters: Milos Forman, Jean-Claude Carriere; Producer: Saul Zaentz; Executive producer: Paul Zaentz; Director of photography: Javier Aguirresarobe; Production designer: Patrizia Von Brandenstein; Music: Varhan Bauer; Co-producers: Mark Albela, Denise O'Dell; Costume designer: Yvonne Blake; Editor: Adam Boome.
Of about 700 of the gorillas left in the world, just over half live around the lush Virunga volcanoes that straddle Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Decimated by conflict and poaching in the volatile region, numbers have begun creeping up again in recent years thanks to Rwandan conservation efforts.
The gorillas are a big-money tourist attraction in Uganda and Rwanda, but remain at risk from warring militias in DRC.
The celebrities got to tour the park and see the primates, but the babies live in the wild and were left alone, with children in costume standing in for them at the naming ceremony.
One baby gorilla was named "Ingufu" -- strength in the local Kinyarwanda dialect -- in honor of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, a hugely popular wildlife documentary-maker killed by a stingray off his native Australia last year.
"We had been planning to come here for some years. We were going to come and do the mountain gorillas. But unfortunately that wasn't to be with the tragedy last year," Irwin's former manager John Stainton said at the ceremony in the foothills of the sanctuary.
"But having this honor to come and name a gorilla in honor of Steve Irwin takes away a sad memory. Steve would have been absolutely thrilled."
Portman named her baby gorilla "Ahazaza" (future), while conservationist Jack Hanna chose "Ibanga" (secret) for his.
GORILLA TREKS
The celebrities were invited to the ceremony to help raise awareness of efforts to ease the animals' plight and paid $500 to come to the park, the standard fee for foreign tourists.
"This is one of the biggest conservation efforts in the world," Hanna told Reuters at the naming ceremony, the third such annual event Rwanda has staged.
Conservation workers and researchers traditionally name primates they track after identifying them based on the patterns formed by wrinkles on their face.
Rwanda, which is still recovering from the 1994 genocide when 800,000 people were hacked to death, is focusing on tourism as a means to generate foreign revenues.
The country earned over $36 million from the tourism sector in 2006, but targets close to $100 million by 2010.
"We have every good reason to celebrate the birth of these gorillas because the benefits they have brought to our country and people speak volumes," Rosette Rugamba, director general of the Rwanda tourism office, said at the ceremony.
Mountain gorillas were made famous by the movie "Gorillas in the Mist" about Dian Fossey, who studied them in Rwanda in the 1960s and documented her work in a book by the same name.
Natalie Portman appears as a dancing ghost in the video for McCartney's single "Dance Tonight," which had its worldwide premiere Wednesday on YouTube.
McCartney connected with Portman through his fashion-designer daughter, Stella, who makes the non-leather shoes Portman buys.
"I rang her up and said 'Hey, I'm Stella's dad!' " McCartney said in a press release for the video. "She had a bit of time off as she was between films so it was great."
In the video, Portman, 25, plays a "futurist electronic ghost," according to the release, who dances to the sound of McCartney's mandolin.
The video also stars actor Mackenzie Crook, who played Gareth in the British version of The Office and is in the last two Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It was directed by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind helmer Michel Gondry.
"Dance Tonight" is the opening track on McCartney's latest CD, his 21st solo album, Memory Almost Full, which will be released in the U.S. on June 5.
A free showing of all six "Star Wars" movies began Wednesday morning at the Los Angeles Convention Center and was expected to end at 2 a.m. Thursday.
The event kicked off a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the release of the original film.
Several thousand people showed up for the screening, which included brief intermissions.
"Because the saga spans 30 years, it spans multiple generations of fans as well," event spokesman Jonathan Zaleski said. "There are people in costume, families. It's an interesting mix."
"You get the usual assortment of Storm Troopers running around," he added. "I imagine it's pretty uncomfortable to sit for 17 hours encased in plastic."
Lucasfilm Ltd. supplied the digital prints for the movies and is involved in "Star Wars Celebration IV" at the Convention Center. That event, open to fan club members Thursday and to the paying public Friday through Monday, was to include costume contests, exhibitions of movie props, autograph opportunities from "Star Wars" celebrities and even a Storm Trooper "Olympics."
The actress said in an interview for ABC's "This Week" that aired Sunday that she has met mothers younger than she is who had to work in poor conditions for low pay because that was the only job available to them.
"And then they're able to get a loan and start their own business out of their own house and be with their children," Portman said. "It changes the whole system."
Portman, who starred in the last three "Star Wars" films, has been working with FINCA International, an organization that provides small loans to people in developing countries.
"If a woman can't tell her child, 'I can feed you tomorrow, I can pay for your school,' then where do they go? What do they do? What do they choose? It's really trying to reach the poorest of the poor and offering banking services to them," she said.
The couple will present their film A Mighty Heart out of competition when the fest kicks off on May 16. In the movie, which Pitt's company, Plan B, produced, Jolie plays Mariane Pearl, the widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
("The story unfolds like a mystery," Jolie tells Entertainment Weekly. "You've got people collecting clues and trying to solve what happened. But it's also very real and personal. We didn't want it to be too melodramatic or too polished. We didn't want it to be a typical movie.")
Other celebs expected at the 11-day, 60th annual festival range from Jude Law and Leonardo DiCaprio to Jane Fonda, Quentin Tarantino and Bono, festival organizers in Paris said Thursday.
Some highlights:
• Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz and singer Norah Jones will set the red-carpet standard on opening night when they appear for director Wong Kar Wai's romance My Blueberry Nights.
• Pitt himself stars in Ocean's 13, and will be joined in Cannes by George Clooney, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and the rest of the cast for that film's world premiere.
• DiCaprio is due to promote a special screening of the environmental documentary The Eleventh Hour, which he produced and co-wrote with filmmakers Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners.
• Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg will be seen alongside Eva Mendes in director James Gray's gritty crime story, We Own The Night, which already has award buzz.
• Past Palme d'Or winner Michael Moore will present the world premiere of his latest documentary, Sicko, a critique of the U.S. health care system.
• Already generating demand for tickets: the weekend midnight screening of U2 3D, a 3-D film made during the band's most recent Latin American tour. Officials say the film will be shown in a theater specially equipped for the event and the band members will be on hand to greet fans.
• Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Woody Harrelson, Josh Brolin and a posse of other actors are riding in for No Country For Old Men, a sprawling Western adventure from perennial festival invitees Joel and Ethan Coen.
• Taylor Momsen and Gabe Nevins will skate in with director Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park, about a skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard.
• After the film's lukewarm reception from American audiences, Quentin Tarantino will debut a special, longer version of his Grindhouse episode "Death Proof" alongside stars Rosario Dawson and Kurt Russell.
Unveiling a poster featuring festival veterans Bruce Willis, Penelope Cruz, Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche, organizers also announced that this year's nine-person jury, headed by The Queen director Stephen Frears, will include actresses Toni Collette, Maria De Medeiros, Maggie Cheung and Sarah Polley.
The film marks director Milos Forman's first since the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic "Man on the Moon," starring Jim Carrey.
"Goya" stars Javier Bardem as a member of the clergy during the Spanish Inquisition who becomes obsessed with one of its targets, Goya's muse (Natalie Portman). The story follows their personal trials from the late 18th century through the tortured girl's release from prison after Napoleon's invasion of Spain.
"'Ghosts' is a love story and a violent political story and a wonderful woman's story about a fascinating period in history and the effect of the Inquisition's lives as seen through the eyes of Goya," said Samuel Goldwyn Films CEO Samuel Goldwyn Jr. "I wish every film we had was as good as this."
"Ghosts" marks the third collaboration between Forman and "Goya" producer Saul Zaentz, following two best picture Oscar winners: 1975's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and 1984's "Amadeus." Forman reteamed with "Valmont" partner Jean-Claude Carriere to write the "Ghosts" screenplay.
Portman, 25, who is best known for her starring roles in the recent Star Wars trilogy, may also act in "A Tale of Love and Darkness" if it is brought to the big screen, Jerusalem Capital Studios spokesman Danny Levy told Reuters.
"JCS has met with Portman to discuss the possibility of her participating in and directing a film version of the book," he said.
"A Tale of Love and Darkness" describes Oz's upbringing in Jerusalem amid the fighting during which the Jewish state was founded. Israeli media said Portman was interested in playing Oz's mother, who committed suicide when the author was a youth.
Portman was born in Jerusalem and speaks Hebrew. In 2005 she appeared in "Free Zone," a road movie by Israeli director Amos Gitai that explored the tensions between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land.
The US rockers were a moderately successful cult band with two albums released when Portman's character uttered the line, "The Shins... you gotta hear this song. It'll change your life."
And Mercer admits things changed overnight for The Shins.
He says, "Probably nobody's life was changed by that as much as mine. It really helped the band. I look at licensing songs as a way to get some visibility... and to get paid for it. We'd toured (album) 'Chutes Too Narrow' for 18 months. Then the plan was to take some time to do a new record but Garden State hit and it was time to go on tour again. As the movie became popular, our sales increased and we began getting invitations to play bigger shows."
But instead, what Forman describes as "merciless" history takes center stage.
The latest offering from the 74-year-old Czech director, opening this week in Madrid, is a $50 million drama filmed lavishly on location around Spain, with a mostly Spanish cast and hearthrobs Javier Bardem and Natalie Portman in starring roles.
Forman is famous for biopics such as his 1984 extravaganza, "Amadeus," which won a clutch of Oscars, and before that for the 1975 Oscar-winner, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
"Goya's Ghosts" tells the story of a sinister yet charismatic monk, Lorenzo (Bardem), who becomes infatuated with a young girl, Ines (Portman) and both are the fictional subjects of portraits by Spanish court painter Goya, considered by some art historians to be the first of the moderns.
The film is primarily the story of Ines, who is questioned under the Inquisition -- a tribunal of the Catholic Church which used torture and imprisonment -- with tragic consequences.
"Really the seeds of this story started about 50 years ago when I read a book about the Spanish Inquisition and I realized how history mercilessly repeats itself," Forman told a news conference in Madrid.
"I found the echoes of the same thing in my life living under the Nazis and under the Communists ... and now in the Middle East."
LESSONS FROM HISTORY
The director was born in what is now the Czech Republic in 1932, and his parents died in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
"Everyone screams 'Never again, we learned the lesson' (of history) ... but of course we didn't. Still, this is good for drama," Forman said.
"Emotionally, the film is about Ines. In this chase for fanaticism the innocent always get crushed."
Forman said he chose Portman at first because he thought she looked like a Goya portrait, The Milkmaid of Bordeaux.
But then he saw the film "Closer" and decided the actress, had enough of a range to play what are effectively three different characters in the film.
Goya himself, played convincingly by a low keyStellan Skarsgard (Breaking the Waves, Good Will Hunting), lived to be 82. He had gone deaf by the age of 46.
He witnessed and painted a gruesome period of European history -- the Inquisition, the French invasion of Spain and the restoration of the monarchy in Madrid by the British.
Goya's paintings depict different social strata over that tumultuous period and it is that role as a faithful observer of history that Forman focuses on, with all the grotesque and brilliant detail for which the painter became famous.
"Of course, because I'm Spanish, I assumed I'd be playing the role of Goya. It seemed the natural thing," award-winning Spanish actor Bardem said in the production notes of the film.
"It's an even greater challenge playing Lorenzo. He's a man of hard and strong beliefs. I would call him a fanatic."
Bardem is currently in Colombia, making a film version of Gabriel Garcia Marques' novel "Love in a Time of Cholera" with Mike Newell, and was unable to attend the Forman premiere.
The performances by Portman and Bardem, as well as a strong line-up from Spanish theater, all speaking in English, are one of the film's strong points.
Goya's Ghosts is beautifully shot and the sets are sumptuous, but the pace is a little uneven and some of the incidents perhaps melodramatic. Still, the director does not appear to take criticism too seriously.
"If you like it, it's your film. If you don't like it, it's my film," Forman joked to reporters.
A smiling Portman — often called the modern-day Hepburn — channels the spritely Holly Golightly by showing off the back of the dress, which was designed by Givenchy. Pearls are draped around her neck. Her hair, set with a black headband, is swept into a stylish updo in an update of Golightly's signature beehive.
"I did feel very elegant suddenly," Portman tells the magazine. "I mean, you can't possibly measure up to Audrey Hepburn; there's no comparison. But the elegance that she exuded was transmitted to the dress, you know, the feeling, the emotion of it."
The dress, one of three versions made for the 1961 movie, will be sold to the highest bidder on Dec. 5 at Christie's auction house in London. It's expected to fetch as much as $130,000.
Proceeds from the dress will go to the City of Joy Aid charity, which provides aid to India's poor.
Portman, whose screen credits include "Closer," "V for Vendetta" and the "Star Wars" movies, was anxious about wearing it.
"I was so nervous that I wasn't going to fit," Portman says. "Everyone kept telling me how small it was, and I'm not the type who can starve myself. I'm small, but it's not like I'm see-through."
The actors worked with such top directors as Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven, Alexander Payne and the Coen brothers.
"Paris" had its North American premiere Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival after opening at the Cannes Film Festival in May. It's slated for theatrical release in early 2007.
A wide assortment of filmmakers crafted the story of different romantic encounters in each one of Paris' arrondissements. Themes of joy, separation, unexpected encounters and love are explored by the international collection of directors and actors.
Fanny Ardant, Bob Hoskins, Emily Mortimer, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Rufus Sewell, Barbet Schroeder, Ludivine Sagnier, Gena Rowlands, Miranda Richardson and Steve Buscemi round out the cast.
The directors, most of whom are not Parisian, made an effort to portray aspects of the city rarely seen on the big screen. They include Gerard Depardieu (who directed his segment with Frederic Auburtin), Christopher Doyle, Alfonso Cuaron, Isabel Coixet, Richard LaGravenese, Walter Salles & Daniela Thomas, Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Vincenzo Natali, Bruno Podalydes, Oliver Schmitz, Nobuhiro Suwa, Tom Tykwer and Olivier Assayas.
In other Toronto deal news, buyers were buzzing about the Tuesday premiere of the salsa bipoic "El Cantante," starring Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, generally believed to be the most sought-after film of the festival. Talk also centered on "Black Sheep," a New Zealand comic horror film provoking strong reactions, as well as talk that it might go to an indie theatrical or DVD distributor.
Other films in play include the Alzheimer's drama "Away From Her," the romantic fable "Penelope" and the romantic comedy "The Pleasure of Your Company."
The Natalie Portman film handily outsold its nearest competitor, the Tim Allen remake of "The Shaggy Dog," by a margin of more than 2-to-1, according to VideoScan's First Alert DVD sales chart for the week ending August 6.
In theaters, "V for Vendetta" grossed $70.5 million, while "The Shaggy Dog" finished with $61.1 million.
On trade publication Home Media Retailing's video rental chart for the week, "V for Vendetta" earned $9.4 million, about $200,000 ahead of the previous week's champ, "The Benchwarmers."
"The Shaggy Dog" bowed at No. 4, with rental earnings of $7.7 million, right behind "Final Destination 3," which after two weeks in stores has generated $17.1 million in rental stores, nearly one-third of its theatrical gross.
The only other new release besides "V for Vendetta" and "The Shaggy Dog" to crack the sales chart was HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Fifth Season," which debuted at No. 20.
Several older releases began creeping back up the DVD sales chart, including "Spider-Man 2" (No. 5) and "Spider-Man" (No. 14). Trailers for the third "Spider-Man" movie, set for release next summer, have just begun playing in theaters.
Television director Justin Chadwick has signed on to make his feature debut at the helm of the picture, which is based on a novel by Philippa Gregory and is set to begin shooting in late September in Europe.
The story revolves around the ferociously ambitious Boleyn sisters, Mary and Anne (Portman), who are rivals for the bed and heart of 16th-century English King Henry VIII (Bana).
Peter Morgan ("The Last King of Scotland") adapted the screenplay.
BBC Films, which originally acquired book rights and made a 2003 TV movie starring Natascha McElhone, also is a producer on the feature project. Scott Rudin, who set the film up with Columbia, will executive produce. Focus Features has the option to acquire international rights.
Portman, who earned an Academy Award nomination for her role in "Closer," recently starred in "V for Vendetta." Her credits also include "Free Zone," "Garden State" and "Cold Mountain."
Bana, who most recently played an Israeli assassin assigned to hunt down Palestinians suspected of carrying out the bloody 1972 raid on the Summer Olympics in "Munich," next appears in Curtis Hanson's "Lucky You."
Chadwick's helming credits include last year's "Bleak House," the BAFTA-winning TV series based on a Charles Dickens' novel.
TELEVISION
Choice TV Show: Drama/Action Adventure
"The O.C."
"Grey's Anatomy"
"One Tree Hill"
"House"
"Lost"
"Smallville"
Choice TV Show: Comedy/Musical
"Desperate Housewives"
"Everybody Hates Chris"
"Gilmore Girls"
"My Name Is Earl"
"High School Musical"
"The War at Home"
Choice TV Show: Animated
"American Dad"
"Family Guy"
"King of the Hill"
"South Park"
"The Boondocks"
"The Simpsons"
Choice TV Show: Reality
"America's Next Top Model"
"American Idol"
"Beauty and the Geek"
"Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County"
"Survivor: Guatemala"
"Yo Momma"
Choice TV Actor: Drama/Action Adventure
Adam Brody, "The O.C."
Chad Michael Murray, "One Tree Hill"
Kiefer Sutherland, "24"
Matthew Fox, "Lost"
Patrick Dempsey, "Grey's Anatomy"
Tom Welling, "Smallville"
Choice TV Actress: Drama/Action Adventure
Evangeline Lilly, "Lost"
Katherine Heigl, "Grey's Anatomy"
Kristen Bell, "Veronica Mars"
Mischa Barton, "The O.C."
Kristin Kreuk, "Smallville"
Sophia Bush, "One Tree Hill"
Choice TV Actor: Comedy
Michael Rapaport, "The War at Home"
Jason Lee, "My Name Is Earl"
Zach Braff, "Scrubs"
Steve Carell, "The Office"
Tyler James Williams, "Everybody Hates Chris"
Wilmer Valderrama, "That '70s Show"
Choice TV Actress: Comedy
Alexis Bledel, "Gilmore Girls"
Eva Longoria, "Desperate Housewives"
Jaime Pressly, "My Name Is Earl"
Mila Kunis, "That '70s Show"
Raven Symone, "That's So Raven"
Tichina Arnold, "Everybody Hates Chris"
Choice TV Sidekick
Allison Mack, "Smallville"
Amaury Nolasco, "Prison Break"
Vincent Martella, "Everybody Hates Chris"
Donald Faison, "Scrubs"
Jorge Garcia, "Lost"
Percy Daggs III, "Veronica Mars"
Choice TV Personality
Ashton Kutcher, "Punk'd"
Nick Cannon, "Nick Cannon Presents Wild 'N Out"
Ryan Seacrest, "American Idol"
Simon Cowell, "American Idol"
Maria Menounos, "Access Hollywood," "Today"
Vanessa Minnillo, "TRL," "Entertainment Tonight"
MOVIES
Choice Movie: Action Adventure
"King Kong"
"Mission: Impossible III"
"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
"Superman Returns"
"V for Vendetta"
"X-Men: The Last Stand"
Choice Movie: Drama
"Flight Plan"
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
"Pride & Prejudice"
"Take the Lead"
"Goal!"
"Walk the Line"
Choice Movie: Chick Flick
"Failure to Launch"
"Just Like Heaven"
"Just My Luck"
"Last Holiday"
"Aquamarine"
"The Lake House"
Choice Movie: Comedy
"Click"
"Nacho Libre"
"Scary Movie 4"
"She's the Man"
"The Benchwarmers"
"The Break-Up"
Choice Movie: Thriller
"American Haunting"
"Hostel"
"Red Eye"
"Saw II"
"Silent Hill"
"The Omen"
Choice Movie Actor: Drama/Action Adventure
Hugh Jackman, "X-Men: The Last Stand"
Johnny Depp, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, "Crash," "Hustle & Flow"
Orlando Bloom, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
Terrence Howard, "Crash," "Hustle & Flow"
Tom Cruise, "Mission: Impossible III"
Choice Movie Actress: Drama/Action Adventure
Halle Berry, "X-Men: The Last Stand"
Jessica Alba, "Fantastic Four"
Keri Russell, "Mission: Impossible III"
Keira Knightley, "Pride & Prejudice," "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
Natalie Portman, "V for Vendetta"
Reese Witherspoon, "Walk the Line"
Choice Movie Actor: Comedy
Vince Vaughn, "The Break-Up"
Jim Carrey, "Fun with Dick and Jane"
Johnny Depp, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
Jon Heder, "The Benchwarmers," "Just Like Heaven"
Jack Black, "Nacho Libre"
Adam Sandler, "Click"
Choice Movie Actress: Comedy
Lindsay Lohan, "Just My Luck"
Jennifer Aniston, "The Break-Up"
Hilary Duff, "The Perfect Man," "Cheaper by the Dozen 2"
Queen Latifah, "Last Holiday"
Rachel McAdams, "Wedding Crashers," "The Family Stone"
Sarah Jessica Parker, "Failure to Launch"
Choice Hottie - Male
Chad Michael Murray
Chris Brown
Justin Timberlake
Nick Lachey
Orlando Bloom
Wentworth Miller
Choice Hottie - Female
Eva Longoria
Jessica Alba
Jessica Simpson
Scarlett Johansson
Rachel Bilson
Rihanna
Choice Comedian
Adam Sandler
Chris Rock
Dane Cook
Jack Black
Jim Carrey
Rachel Dratch
Natalie Portman, Jude Law and Rachel Weisz are joining the already cast Norah Jones in "My Blueberry Nights," report news sources.
The project stars Jones as a young woman who travels across America, meeting up with a series of characters in bars and on the road in her quest to find the true meaning of love. Some have also described the film as an exploration of "the sensual link between love and food," which would probably explain the "blueberry" in the title.
Production is scheduled to begin in the summer.
Jones is sitar maestro Ravi Shankar's daughter and a multiple Grammy winner for her debut album "Come Away with Me."
The film will be a reunion of sorts for Portman and Law, who last co-starred together in "Closer." She was last seen in "V for Vendetta" and "Star Wars: Episode III," and has a trio of films coming up, including "Free Zone," "Goya's Ghosts" and "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium."
Law last made an appearance in "The Aviator" and narrated "Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events." His films "All the King's Men" and "Breaking and Entering" are scheduled to be released this fall.
Weisz won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role as an activist in "The Constant Gardener." She next stars opposite Hugh Jackman in Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain," out this fall.
Wong's most recent films include "In the Mood for Love" and its sort of sequel, "2046." He's also on board to direct the remake of Orson Welles' "The Lady of Shanghai," this time starring Nicole Kidman.
Prince, 47, shares the honor with Kristen Bell, the 25-year-old star of "Veronica Mars," which is being carried over from UPN to the new CW Network this fall.
A strict vegan, Prince recently wrote in the liner notes of his latest album, "3121," about the ills behind wool production. He closed the disc with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: "2 my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being."
Bell, in a statement, said of her vegetarianism: "I had a hard time disassociating the animals I cuddled with — dogs and cats, for example — from the animals on my plate, and I never really cared for the taste of meat. I always loved my brussels sprouts!"
Runners-up in the poll, which PETA said received over 40,000 votes, include Natalie Portman, Nicollette Sheridan and Joaquin Phoenix.
Last year, Coldplay singer Chris Martin and "American Idol" Carrie Underwood were picked as the two "sexiest vegetarians." Other previous winners include Andre 3000, Tobey Maguire, Josh Hartnett, Alicia Silverstone, Lauren Bush and Shania Twain.
This is a Paris where Oscar Wilde can reappear beside his grave at Pere Lachaise to give squabbling lovers a sense of humor. A vampire may pounce on an unsuspecting backpacker in the Madeleine. A cowboy on horseback can bring a grieving mother back to her family. A paramedic may fall in love with her bleeding patient.
Love in all its weird and wonderful forms is the subject of 18 short films made by an assortment of international directors who bring individual vision to a collective love letter to the French capital. Most of the directors have written their own pieces, and they range from whimsical to romantic, to dramatic and tragic.
With many familiar faces including Juliette Binoche, Fanny Ardant, Natalie Portman, Nick Nolte, Steve Buscemi, Bob Hoskins and Gena Rowlands, the film is necessarily uneven but has an overall winning charm and can expect a warm reception in art houses around the world.
Buscemi and Coen brothers completists will not want to miss their hilarious tale of an American tourist on the Metro stop at the Tuileries learning firsthand how accurate his guidebook is. Forget "The Da Vinci Code" -- anyone who sees this film will never look at Mona Lisa's smile again without thinking of the matchless Buscemi.
An offbeat sense of humor is established from the opening story, subtitled "Montmartre," in which a frustrated young man (writer-director Bruno Podalydes) struggles to find a parking spot only to spend the time parked complaining aloud about why he can't find a girlfriend.
Then a lovely young woman (Florence Muller) faints beside his car. It's Paris.
Writer-director Gurinder Chadha spends a few minutes showing how a young man (Cyril Descours) can learn more from a modest hijab-wearing young woman (Leila Bekhti) than from his leering buddies.
Isabel Coixet manages to find great humor in a story of a failed love affair given new life after one of the lovers (Miranda Richardson) is diagnosed with terminal leukemia, while Oliver Schmitz's new paramedic (Aissa Maiga) learns how fleeting love can be while treating a stab victim (Seydou Boro).
Several sequences begin with misdirection so that Nolte's May-December romance turns out to be not that at all, while Hoskins and Ardant's strip club encounter involves more than a little planned artifice. Tom Tykwer's tale of an actress (Portman) trying to break off her affair with a blind linguist (Melchior Besion) also holds a surprise. Sylvain Chomet's item involving mimes is pleasingly self-mocking, and Alexander Payne's narrative of a Denver matron (Margo Martindale) visiting the city to improve her halting French begins in sarcasm and ends in sympathy.
Binoche grieves for her dead son in Nobuhiro Suwa's parable about a cowboy (Willem Dafoe) who rides the midnight streets of Paris to ease her pain. Director Barbet Schroeder has fun along with Li Xin in a wacky musical fantasy by Christopher Doyle. Wes Craven naturally gravitates to a graveyard for his oddball contribution involving Wilde.
The cinematography is varied and wonderful. Pierre Adenot's music fits the bill, and there's a great waltz at the end with English adaptation by Oscar-winning lyricist Will Jennings.
Directors: Bruno Podalydes, Gurinder Chadha, Gus Van Sant, Joel and Ethan Coen, Walter Salles & Daniela Thomas, Christopher Doyle, Isabel Coixet, Nobuhiro Suwa, Sylvain Chomet, Alfonso Cuaron, Olivier Assayas, Oliver Schmitz, Richard LaGravenese, Vincenzo Natali, Wes Craven, Tom Tykwer, Frederic Auburtin & Gerard Depardieu, Alexander Payne.
Producers: Claudie Ossard & Emmanuel Benbihy
Co-producer: Burkhard Von Schenk
Executive producers: Chris Bolzli, Gilles Caussade, Sam Englebardt, Ara Katz, Chad Troutwine, Frank Moss, Rafi Chaudry
Original idea: Tristan Carne
Concept: Emmanuel Benbihy
Production designer: Bettina von den Steinen
Editing supervisors: Simon Jacquet, Frederic Auburtin
Original music: Pierre Adenot
In short episodes -- each set in a different Parisian neighborhood -- the film "Paris je t'aime" tells the funny, sad and sometimes utterly surreal love stories of couples living in the pretty and ugly parts of the French capital.
Featuring actors such as Nick Nolte, Natalie Portman and Steve Buscemi, the homage to the city of lights received much applause at the Cannes film festival this week, where it is presented in the sideline "Un Certain Regard" show.
But the film also came at a welcome time for Paris, where suburban riots and sometimes violent street protests have stolen the media limelight from the city's acclaimed architectural beauties in past months and caused ministers to caution that the image of Paris could suffer.
Elijah Wood, known for his lead role in the "Lord of the Rings" films, told Reuters the movie might help promote a more positive image of Paris.
"I think it's a great love postcard to the city, so I think in a way it could help the morale," said Wood, who plays a backpacker meeting a vampire in the movie.
NOLTE FINDS PARISIAN WOMEN PICKY
Nick Nolte, who stars in an episode by director Alfonso Cuaron, said Paris was the city of romance, but this did not guarantee immediate success with its females.
"Parisian women are very, very picky and have very high standards," he said.
"Paris je t'aime," made by directors including Joel and Ethan Coen, mixes views of Paris's historic center with more blunt pictures of the capital's poorer districts.
The uniting message is that love can hit anyone, anywhere -- such as the car driver who meets his flame while struggling to find a parking spot on the hilly streets of Montmartre, or the American actress - played by Natalie Portman - who attracts her neighbor's attention as she rehearses a scene of violence.
In the Coen brothers' episode, a stunned American tourist (Steve Buscemi) learns through a violent encounter that the Mona Lisa's smile can seem like an ironic grin if you are unlucky.
Other stories are set in bleak neighborhoods on the edge of Paris -- a maze of high rise buildings similar to those areas where youths angry about unemployment and discrimination set thousands of cars ablaze in riots last November.
French actress Juliette Binoche, who has a mysterious meeting with a cowboy on a horse in Paris's center, said she was seduced by the variety of views the film offered.
"I always loved diversity and I loved traveling, so when you have travelers coming to the place where you were born I think it's very beautiful," Binoche told Reuters. "I think the more we exchange, the better it is."
The stories vary from banal settings to dream-like tales, with the dialogue often taking on a surreal flavor as well.
"Can I massage your feet?" an unemployed man asks the female paramedic tending to his wound after he was stabbed. "Why would I let you do that?" she asks. "Because they hurt. You've been running around in my dreams all night," he says.
Over the frame, "Vendetta," based on the comic by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, took in an estimated $26.14 million. Those figures were easily enough to best the competition and they were in line with the low side of estimates for the drama, which stars Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving and was produced by Joel Silver and "The Matrix" brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski.
Fueled by largely positive reviews -- negative notices tended to harp on that whole "sympathetic terrorist" angle of the plot -- "Vendetta" averaged $7,767 per screen, the best of any film in the Top 12, playing in 3365 locations.
"Vendetta" stuck a knife in the box office reign of "Failure to Launch," which dropped a spot in its second weekend. The critically panned comedy, which stars Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker (as well as Terry Bradshaw and Kathy Bates as an unlikely married couple), fell a reasonable 35 percent to $15.8 million. With a $5,074 per-screen-average, "Launch" is holding up nicely with a cumulative take of nearly $48.5 million.
A well as "Launch" is holding, it doesn't compare to the Tim Allen update of "The Shaggy Dog." With nothing new in theaters for families, the man-dog comedy fell only 16 percent to $11 million, with nearly $35.9 million and counting for its total. "Dog" was able to fight off the weekend's other new release, Amanda Bynes' "Twelfth Night" update "She's the Man." In its first weekend, the comedy did a respectable $11 million, playing on 2623 screens for a $4,198 average.
Even with the solid "Vendetta" opening, the Top 12 films at the box office did $93.8 million for the weekend, down nearly 11 percent from the comparable frame last year, when the $35 million opening for "The Ring 2" propelled the Top 12 to $105.3 million.
Beyond the four films that passed the $10 million mark, overall receipts were fairly lackluster. In its second weekend, "The Hills Have Eyes" was off 49 percent to take fifth place with $8.05 million and $28.8 million total for the horror remake. After "Hills," there was a large drop to sixth place "16 Blocks" ($4.74 million) and "Eight Below( $4.19 million) in seventh.
Also making the Top 12 were "Madea's Family Reunion" ($3 million), "The Pink Panther" ($2.5 million), "Aquamarine" ($2.025 million), "Ultraviolet" ($1.4 million) and "Date Movie" ($1.325 million).
Playing in only 439 theaters, the Vin Diesel vehicle "Find Me Guilty" made nary a ripple, as the legal dramedy averaged only $1,431 per screen for a total of $628,000.
Playing in limited release, Jason Reitman's comedy "Thank You For Smoking" did a whopping $52,000-plus per screen, playing in only five locations. The festival favorite got its platform release off to a good start with $260,066. Also delivering decent returns in the limited market was Wim Wenders' "Don't Come Knocking," which averaged $5,921 per screen in six locations.
Next weekend, "Vendetta" will be challenged by "The Inside Man" and "Stay Alive."
All estimates come courtesy of Exhibitor Relations, which tracks daily box office receipts.
Opening Friday, "V for Vendetta" casts Portman as a Londoner living under the heel of a repressive government in the near future, when xenophobic reactionaries have seized control of Britain and turned it into a police state.
Her character, Evey, is drawn into the world of the title character V (Hugo Weaving), a masked crusader orchestrating massive bombings to rally popular support to bring down the regime.
Portman said that along with its explosive action, the film is meant to stir uneasy debate in a post-Sept. 11 world about who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter.
"There's sort of World War II imagery, Holocaust imagery, also some language you hear from today's modern Western democracy leaders as well as elements of sort of terrorist groups today," Portman said in an interview Thursday at ShoWest, a theater-owners convention where she received an award as female star of the year.
"I think all these different elements together create interesting questions about when, if ever, we can justify violence."
The 24-year-old Portman, who sported some of Hollywood's most elaborate hairstyles as Padme Amidala in the three latest "Star Wars" flicks, got the Sinead O'Connor treatment in "V for Vendetta." Imprisoned, Evey has her long locks shorn in a scene disturbingly reminiscent of images from the Holocaust.
Director James McTeigue — a protege of "V for Vendetta" screenwriters Andy and Larry Wachowski, creators of "The Matrix" movies — had only one chance to get Portman's haircut scene right.
Evey's tearful reactions were shot as Portman had her hair clipped to the skull.
"It was something I had always thought about doing," Portman said. To throw away "conventions of beauty and male expectations to how we're supposed to aesthetically please them or whatever is definitely a nice thing to do."
One foresees news talk shows in which red-faced pundits denounce the filmmakers and call for boycotts. Given a film as entertaining and solidly crafted as this one, such attention could turn into strong box office.
Of course, plenty of films -- particularly those set in dystopian futures like this one -- identify with revolutionaries. But most put heavy sci-fi clothing on their brave new worlds, while "V" takes pains to tie its reality to our own. Although based on a comic book, it isn't as heavily stylized as a superhero movie. Its score and production design, both rich and inviting, are heightened without suggesting that this near-future London is an outright fantasy, though the new government, a restrictive state led by John Hurt's Sutler, is draped in some awfully Nazi-ish iconography.
If the film's look and feel refuse to flee from the real world, its dialogue takes every chance to connect to it. We are told about the recent past, that "America's war grew worse and worse, and eventually came to London." Hot-button terms like "rendition" are sprinkled about; dissidents are handled as in a third-world dictatorship; and our hero (who calls himself V) lectures citizens who have surrendered their liberties to a government that promised to protect them from terrorism.
As V, Hugo Weaving has the unenviable task of playing the entire film behind an immobile mask. He rises to the challenge, bringing the character to life with body language and his sonorously nimble voice.
V has a flair for the theatrical. He introduces himself to London on Guy Fawkes Day with fireworks and a symbolic bombing, then hijacks a television broadcast to announce that he will return a year later to destroy the Houses of Parliament. He suggests that citizens who feel oppressed by their rulers should join him there. And then he's gone, leaving some very anxious politicians in his wake.
The viewer's proxy here is Evey (Natalie Portman), who accidentally becomes a part of V's plans. With her, we work through many of the expected reactions to V's approach -- and if she eventually comes around to his way of thinking, the film certainly doesn't present the choice as an uncomplicated one. The filmmakers (Andy and Larry Wachowski adapting the screenplay, James McTeigue at the helm) are clearly on the vigilante's side, but they give viewers room to question his motives and methods: Has he psychologically programmed Evey? Is the city of London about to become a war zone simply because V has a personal grudge? The serious tone "Vendetta" takes encourages such moral nitpicking.
Although some marketing materials aim to position this as an action film, viewers expecting a thrill ride might be disappointed. V engages in a couple of satisfying crime-fighting set pieces, but the story is more occupied with mystery and intrigue. Happily, it almost is entirely free of the hollow pomposity that marred the Wachowskis' last two "Matrix" films. Here, Alan Moore's graphic novel and the history of real-world oppressive governments is more than enough, leaving no need for the screenwriters to invent hokey mythologies and plenty of room to fantasize about revolution.
CAST:
Evey Hammond: Natalie Portman
V: Hugo Weaving
Finch: Stephen Rea
Sutler: John Hurt
Prothero: Roger Allam
Gordon Deitrich: Stephen Fry
Creedy: Tim Pigott-Smith
Director: James McTeigue; Screenwriters: Andy Wachowski & Larry Wachowski; Based on the graphic novel by: Alan Moore and David Lloyd; producers: Grant Hill, Joel Silver, Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski; Executive producer: Benjamin Waisbren; Director of photography: Adrian Biddle; Production designer: Owen Paterson; Music: Dario Marianelli; Co-producers: Roberto Malerba, Henning Molfenter, Charlie Woebcken; Costume designer: Sammy Sheldon; Editor: Martin Walsh.
"I have someone who does it up for me on these occasions," she says with a giggle.
Portman had her locks shaved on screen in a single take. She tried not to lose her head along with her hair. "It was a one-shot deal, and that was the most stressful thing about the experience," she says, smiling.
Vendetta director James McTeigue recalls the pivotal shearing as just another day at work for the unflappable Portman, 24.
"The first time I saw her about the role, I had her put her hair behind her head because I wanted to see what she looked like bald. That was the only conversation we had about it," he says. "She knew the day was coming. I put three cameras on her, made sure the clippers weren't stuck, and then we shaved her head. She loved it and kept rubbing her head."
That businesslike attitude is on display over an evening chat at the Mandarin Oriental hotel overlooking Central Park. Portman is a pixie in a short-sleeved, dark blue frilly blouse, skintight jeans and silver ballerina flats, her eyes heavily made up for a day of press. But V for Vendetta, which opens Friday, is the first glimpse of a flintier, feistier Portman. The film is based on the graphic novel of the same name, co-written by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, published 15 years ago.
The movie, which rests largely on Portman's diminutive shoulders, is her first starring role in a potential blockbuster. She's the biggest name in the film and has been working overtime to promote it, particularly because its producers, the Matrix trilogy's Wachowski brothers, do not speak to the press. But Portman, who made her movie debut at 13 in The Professional, is more than up to the challenge. She has a psychology degree from Harvard and a roster of prestigious films under her narrow belt.
Anthony Minghella, who directed Portman in 2003's Cold Mountain, praises her curiosity and calls the actress "disarmingly intelligent. She reminds me a little of Jodie Foster, because I can see her, as time goes on, wanting to spread her wings beyond acting. Her big brain wants to be fed."
She recently completed Milos Forman's historic drama Goya's Ghosts and earned an Oscar nomination for playing a temptress in Mike Nichols' 2004 relationship chiller Closer. And now, as Evey, Portman battles a regime that doesn't value human rights and freedom of expression. Evey goes from timid to tenacious with the help of the mysterious, masked V (Hugo Weaving), who opposes the government and happens to have a major chip on his shoulder.
Weaving replaced James Purefoy three weeks into the shoot, but Portman handled the switch with aplomb, even though she shares most of her scenes with the faceless fighter. The two new co-stars broke the ice over "a very nice Thai meal in Berlin," Weaving says.
He describes his co-star as "extremely smart and sweet and very small" and "very relaxed."
Portman says she opted to take the role of Evey because she was "excited by the prospect of making a big, entertaining movie that also had substance," she says.
Vendetta, set in London, was filmed in Berlin last spring at historic Babelsberg Studios. V's home, the palatial underground Shadow Gallery, was shot on the same soundstage where Fritz Lang filmed his thriller Metropolis in 1927. For the Israeli-born Portman, spending nearly three months in Germany was eye-opening.
"As a Jew growing up, I'd never been to Germany before," she says. "I fell in love with Berlin. The movie is about a totalitarian regime, and seeing a city that's been through a series of totalitarian regimes sort of created a depth in our environment. And it's also a great city. It's like New York once was, full of artists and young people before it became prohibitively expensive."
To speak like a Londoner, Portman spent a month working with a dialect coach. Portman acknowledges that she got carried away. "I stayed in the accent all the time. They told me that's the best way to get the tune and rhythm," she says. "But then my mom said, 'Really, Natalie, enough already. This is crazy.' I'd call her on the phone and be like, 'Hellooo, Mum.' "
And that's about as personal as Portman gets. She's polite, chirpy even, yet from her darting glances and crisp answers, you get the feeling she doesn't relish talking about herself. That's not to say she can't let loose. After admiring a Wonder Woman T-shirt, she laughs at how illogical it is that the superhero's plane has no engine. And she breaks into full-body laughs when recounting one tabloid story that had her dating David Schwimmer, whom she had "never even met!"
But don't expect Portman to air her dirty laundry in public. The less you know about the enigmatic actress, the happier she is.
"I'm a really open person," she insists. "Everyone I'm close to knows everything about me. But I have friends to tell my problems to, and I have no desire to tell them to strangers. Public confessional is not something I'm tempted to do."
Portman isn't chased by paparazzi. She doesn't get into drunken brawls outside bars. And while you won't generally find her dancing up a storm with starlet tabloid princesses at various velvet-rope destinations, Portman does like to have a good time. She even spoofed her good-girl image in a gangsta rap she performed while hosting Saturday Night Live on March 4. The concept, she said, came to her when she and the writers "were throwing ideas around. What would be the most surprising thing coming from little conservative me? It seemed pretty funny."
In fact, Portman says she's anything but boring.
"People are always like, 'You don't party! Do you have any fun in your life?' And I'm like, 'I do party.' But I party with my friends. I'm not hanging out with tabloid targets. I hang out in my friends' apartments, and we go to non-Hollywoody clubs."
Besides, "I'm 24! I have fun. I'm not, like, doing drugs or being nuts. I like laughing more than anything."
She also loves to get as much shut-eye as possible and admits to picking her cuticles, a habit she can't kick: "I'm prone to it."
The actress gets most animated when discussing her favorite college courses (American literature, poetry and two classes taught by law professor Alan Dershowitz) and some books she has read, including Luis Buñuel's autobiography and Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera.
She gasps excitedly when told about an upcoming biographical book of doomed British queen Anne Boleyn. And she'll happily discuss dreams and what they might mean (not much, according to one of her Harvard classes).
The recent Vogue cover girl is dismissive of style-related chitchat because "it's more interesting to talk about real stuff rather than frivolous fashion stuff."
Still, Portman wears Lanvin, Chanel and young designers like Zac Posen, whom she met four years ago through a mutual friend at Harvard when Posen was making clothes in his parents' apartment. She has been donning his dresses ever since.
Posen says Portman is "the kind of woman that doesn't define herself by image or fashion. She's a big activist for animals, doesn't wear fur or leather and tries not to wear leather shoes. She's not caught up in the industry (politics) at all. She has her little house and her little dog."
Portman's personality, Minghella says, is "infectious and gregarious. You feel like she's got great parents who have nurtured her and have set a high bar for her."
The actress has two homes, one near her parents on Long Island and one in Manhattan. She drives an eco-friendly Toyota Prius and says navigating Manhattan's traffic is "fun." And she has an incognito security guy in tow to keep the pesky Star Wars fans at bay.
The biggest perk of being Queen Amidala?
"You get so much access. I've gotten to travel to Tunisia and Japan and Australia and Romania. I've gotten to talk to Bill Clinton and Ehud Olmert. For a 24-year-old, that's so lucky and rare," she says.
Her voice swells with passion as she talks about the "feminization of poverty" and how reading about Jordan's Queen Rania got her involved in the Foundation for International Community Assistance, a non-profit that helps the poor with banking services and offers mothers help in caring for their children.
Says Portman: "I was in Uganda with the program, and I saw a woman who'd been in the program for 10 years. She started out on less than $1 a day and had 10 kids, and her husband was beating her. Now she runs a restaurant, and one of her daughters is in university. You can turn it around."
Sounds just like something Evey would say.
But off-screen, Natalie Portman calls an Illinois senator a hero.
"In this country, Senator (Barack) Obama has been brave," she said at the film's premiere Monday night at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Dressed in Lanvin, Portman hugged Susan Sarandon, her co-star in 1999's Anywhere But Here, on the red carpet and gamely answered questions about the locks she shaved off to play Evey in Vendetta, which opens Friday. In the film, her character joins forces with terrorist V and goes about toppling a corrupt totalitarian British regime.
Her shorn tresses may be in a bag, the actress says, but she's not sure.
"I have it somewhere, but I actually don't know where it is," she adds, laughing. "I should find it. It's dangerous."
Director James McTeigue threatened to find the hair and sell it on eBay: "I want that bag," he announced.
And what would compel Portman to take action against oppression?
"I think if someone was threatening my family I could maybe be brought to violence," she said.
Hugo Weaving, who plays the titular fighter V, sported a beard instead of the mask he wears in the film. In reality, the actor said, he has always been "reasonably law-abiding, but I have a rebellious streak in me as well."
His real-life heroes are "a couple of friends of mine who are pretty sick at the moment, and I've always marveled at how brave they are, dealing with illness," he said.
Film producer Joel Silver, meanwhile, was marveling at a skill set of a different sort.
"Who knew she had the ability to be a gangsta rapper?" he said, referring to Portman's performance hosting Saturday Night Live on March 4.
"Can you believe it?" Silver asked. "It's a complete package. She's beautiful with or without hair. She's spectacular!"
The movie, which has been in production for several years, is told in five-minute segments each focusing on one of Paris' 20 administrative districts, or "arrondissements," then joined by transition elements.
Directors involved include Alfonso Cuaron, Gurinder Chadha, Gus Van Sant, Isabelle Coixet, Joel and Ethan Coen, Nobuhiro Suwa, Alexander Payne, Tom Tykwer, Walter Salles and Wes Craven. French participation includes Olivier Assayas, Gerard Depardieu and the live-action debut of animator Sylvain Chomet ("Les Triplettes de Belleville").
The cast includes Bob Hoskins, Elijah Wood, Emily Mortimer, Gena Rowlands, Juliette Binoche, Leonor Watling, Ludivine Sagnier, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Nick Nolte, Steve Buscemi and Willem Dafoe.
The 59th annual Cannes Film Festival begins May 17 with director Ron Howard's "The Da Vinci Code."
"I was really excited to get to shave my head - it's something I'd wanted to do for a while and now I had a good excuse," Portman told reporters at the Berlin International Film Festival. "It was nice to shed that level of vanity for a girl."
However, "I wasn't used to being looked at so much," the 24-year-old actress said. "Walking down the street, I can usually blend in, and people really stare at you when you're a girl with a shaved head."
The film, directed by James McTeigue, screened outside the competition Monday. Written by Andy and Larry Wachowski, V for Vendetta is set in a future Britain run by a fascist dictatorship.
Portman's character, Evey, is saved from an attack by a masked anarchist known only as V, played by Hugo Weaving, and becomes a comrade in his struggle against the regime.
Weaving, who played Agent Smith in the Matrix films, faced the challenge of playing V from behind a mask.
"It was hot and I felt there was a barrier between myself and other actors," he said.
"When you don't see an actor's face, it forces you to listen to what he has to say," Weaving, 45, added. "What was important to me was that the ideas came through."
Portman received an Oscar nomination for her role in 2004's Closer.
The masked crusader makes homemade bombs, which he plants on London's subway system, and condones violence in pursuit of justice. The Orwellian authorities rule chiefly by fear.
With "V for Vendetta," the scriptwriters who brought us "The Matrix" may be asking for trouble.
Starring a shaven-headed Natalie Portman as the foil to the mystery man known only as V, the film is based on a 1980s graphic novel warning readers about the danger of lurching to the political right under then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
The anti-hero, played by Hugo Weaving, seeks to emulate the 17th Century Catholic rebel Guy Fawkes, who narrowly failed to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London on November 5, 1605, and was hanged for his troubles.
But despite its references to the past, the narrative is set sometime in the near future and alludes to a period when wars have come back to haunt the United States, which has descended into chaos.
One character says "blowing up a building can change the world," while another is arrested for having a Koran hidden at home. The film's tagline is: "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
"There are hot button issues that are dealt with in the story and that's good, that's fresh," producer Joel Silver told Reuters at the Berlin Film Festival, where the film gets its world premiere late on Monday.
"It seems to be as relevant as it could be right now. I think that it's going to be very current and very topical and I think people will be intrigued by the material. I think it's the right time and the right place."
"MOVIES AS CULTURAL SABOTAGE"
Vanity Fair magazine, which said the picture's release was delayed from November 5 last year due to the July suicide bombings in London, gushed about the film, calling it "spectacular and exhilarating" and a return to "movies as cultural sabotage."
"You have a world teetering on the brink -- apocalypse being the animating anxiety of the superhero genre," the left-leaning magazine wrote. "Apocalypse is, too, less than coincidentally, the fortifying principle of the Bush administration."
There was no sign of the reclusive Andy and Larry Wachowski in Berlin, and it was not clear if they would agree with such a rigid interpretation of their film. But a copy of the article was included in press packs handed out to reporters in Berlin.
The topic of terror and its justification is not the only feature of "Vendetta" that may spark debate.
John Hurt, who plays the evil leader Sutler, is made to look and sound like Adolf Hitler, and images of biological experiments on human beings are designed to resemble the concentration camps of World War Two.
Despite references to the past and present, both Silver and first-time director James McTeigue were keen to put distance between the events in the film and those in the real world.
"It is a work of fiction. It is a piece of entertainment," McTeigue told Reuters.
Portman will be presented with the award at the closing-night ceremony March 16 at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas.
"Natalie Portman has delivered an impressive array of performances throughout her terrific career, which began in 1994 when she burst onto the scene in the highly regarded 'The Professional' opposite Jean Reno," said Mitch Neuhauser, co-managing director of the event. "She has the unique ability to draw deep emotion from audiences as evidenced in such films as 'Heat,' 'Beautiful Girls,' 'Where the Heart Is,' 'Cold Mountain' and 'Closer."'
Portman next stars in Warner Bros. Pictures' futuristic thriller "V for Vendetta," which opens March 17. In the film, set in a totalitarian Britain, she plays a woman rescued by a mysterious masked revolutionary.
She also will star in Milos Forman's upcoming "Goya's Ghosts." Most recently, she appeared in George Lucas' second "Star Wars" trilogy, culminating with "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith."
ShoWest is managed by the VNU Expositions Film Group, a division of VNU Business Media, which also includes The Hollywood Reporter.
The 24-year-old actress tops the website's list ranking female celebrities on their "long-term relationship material." Alba is followed by Alfie star Sienna Miller and the ubiquitous Angelina Jolie.
The list will be posted Tuesday.
James Bassil, editor-in-chief of AskMen.com, told The Associated Press the list was determined by the rankings of 2.5 million readers and by the site's staff.
Readers of the online magazine were asked to vote according to the woman they would most want a relationship with, would consider marrying or thought best-suited to be the mother of their children.
Of course, few have ever accused Alba, Miller or Jolie of being short on movie star glamour.
"We encouraged readers not to go on looks alone," Bassil said. "I don't believe it's an entirely accurate reflection of what a reader strives for in their long-term relationships, but at the same time, it's not a sheerly surface appreciation."
The rest of the top 10, in order, is Brazilian model Adriana Lima (No. 1 last year), Access Hollywood correspondent Maria Menounos, Charlize Theron, Jessica Biel, singer Amerie, Natalie Portman and Eva Longoria.
Britney Spears - a mainstay of such lists in previous years - failed to chart.
Huffman and Bello wore ethereal white, which will be a top spring fashion trend. Bello complemented her white beaded Elie Saab gown with white gardenias in her upswept hair.
Keira Knightley also wore a stunning strapless white dress by Valentino with a rope-style belt, and Sandra Oh wore a white gown with a sophisticated scarf-style back.
"White was the big winner," Suze Yalof-Schwartz of Glamour magazine said from the red carpet.
Kate Beckinsale's white dress from the Christian Dior archives was dainty and elegant. She showed a bit of a funky streak with her oversized green earrings.
Reese Witherspoon's short vintage Chanel haute couture was a champagne color with metallic trim on the bust.
Cross' dress, meanwhile, was coral, providing a sharp and stunning contrast to her red hair.
"Marcia looked very goddesslike," said Collier Strong, consulting makeup artist for L'Oreal, who helped Cross get ready. "I knew her makeup had to be lighter and more feminine because the fabric was so billowy. ... It's easy to work with her because she has the most perfect skin you've ever seen."
Red also had a strong presence on the carpet: Scarlett Johansson wore a red scoop neck Valentino dress with soft ruffles on the straps and down the back; Geena Davis wore a strapless Escada with a jeweled bustier top; and Laura Linney had an asymmetrical version.
"Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria complemented her red Grecian wrap gown by Bob Mackie with gold platform shoes to boost her 5-foot-2-inch frame. Longoria told E!'s Isaac Mizrahi that she was sewn into the dress because it wasn't finished until she was walking out the door.
Equally bright was Ziyi Zhang's Giorgio Armani lime green silk tulle gown with a sweetheart neckline and floor-sweeping train.
But some of fashion's favorite faces stuck with classic black — and proved that it is eternally chic.
Sarah Jessica Parker was in a strapless dress with tiny rows of tulle by Rochas, and Christian Dior's John Galliano designed a custom cocktail dress for Charlize Theron that featured black lace over nude tulle. Swank's black dress by Jean Yu had a sexy back with several straps, and Mary-Louise Parker had a plunging V-front.
Natalie Portman looked Audrey Hepburnesque in a vintage Chanel black lace bustier dress with a ribbon belt and a black-and-white diamond camellia jewel around her waist. Renee Zellweger remained loyal to designer Carolina Herrera, wearing an asymmetrical black silk chiffon dress with rouched detail and a leg-length slit up the left thigh. Zellweger wore a vintage Van Cleef & Arpels brooch pinned to the back of her waist.
Candice Bergen's Michael Kors black turtleneck and ballskirt was a picture of casual elegance.
Nicolette Sheridan and Queen Latifah both choose blue dresses. Sheridan's was an Armani sapphire-blue silk chiffon gown with a deep V-neck and pleated bodice, Latifah's a periwinkle goddess number that she accessorized with 23-carat, round-shaped drop diamond earrings with a fancy yellow pear-shaped diamond drop pendant on a diamond chain by Chopard.
Teri Hatcher wore a body-hugging V-neck bronze halter gown with art deco-style beading, loose hair and a small bronze clutch that held her California driver's license. Hatcher told Mizrahi she was told to bring identification to get in at the door. (She also told him that it was her 8-year-old daughter that warned her about her panty lines, so Hatcher showed up to the Globes without underwear.)
"The Globes set the fashion tone for the rest of the season," designer Randolph Duke told the Associated Press. "It's a very chic show. Some (actresses) wear more cocktail dresses. The Globes are an opportunity to do something other than that classic, glamorous Oscar gown."
Gwyneth Paltrow's overall look was very soft. Her white Balenciaga tiered gown embraced her pregnant belly instead of hiding it and her hair was up with soft waves.
The messy bun worn by so many stars was "crucial," according to Glamour's Yalof-Schwartz, and so was heavy eye makeup, pale lips and big, teardrop earrings.
"I had to find a dress that would glow with me — that was the main challenge," said Rachel Weisz, who is five months pregnant and looked quite voluptuous in her strapless gold gown by Donna Karan.
"You still see a lot of strapless," observed designer Duke. "There's something very easy about the strapless neckline. It solves a lot of problems. The garment has a foundation — usually a bustier or corset — that makes a girl feel more confident."
George Clooney embodied the classic male movie star in his Armani two-button tuxedo with satin lapels and a classic white spread-collar evening shirt and black necktie.
Ludacris, of course, had his own twist on the penguin suit: He wore a black velvet Ralph Lauren jacket with tweed pants. And Johnny Depp — always a fashion rebel — had a red shirt under his baggy suit.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith took in a total of $848.5 million US in worldwide sales.
The science fiction epic was the final Star Wars prequel, following Anakin Skywalker's transformation into the evil Darth Vader.
Fantasy and science fiction dominated the top 10 films, with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire coming in second, and War of the Worlds third.
While the top two blockbusters took in more than $1.5 billion US combined last year, 2005 was not a banner year for movies.
According to movie industry magazine Variety, total sales in 2005 hit about $10.1 billion US compared to $10.7 billion US in 2004.
Last year turned out pretty well for actor Christopher Lee, 83, who had roles in Revenge of the Sith, Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - leading all actors in box-office take last year, with his films raking in more than $1.5 billion US in total.
The Top 10 Films of 2005 worldwide are:
- Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- War of the Worlds
- Madagascar
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith
- Batman Begins
- Hitch
- Fantastic Four
- Wedding Crashers
Sure, Silver is meeting with the press now to promote "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang," Shane Black's hard-boiled satire of pulp fiction and Hollywood, but it's hard to talk to him without bringing up the myriad films he's got coming up.
Silver was actually supposed to be drumming up support for two films right now, but "V for Vendetta," an adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel starring Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving was bumped from November to next March. "Vendetta" is based on a script the Wachowski Brothers wrote for Silver before they started the "Matrix" films and was directed by their regular second unit helmer James McTeigue.
"The movie is remarkable," Silver swears. "They [the Wachowskis] produced it with me. James directed it, he got great performances, but it's their vision. They designed the movie. It's a really incredible movie. People are really gonna be blown away by it. It's big."
It was too big, apparently, to be ready for the dream release strategized by the filmmakers.
"We finished the movie in August and the boys wanted to have the movie come out to coincide with Guy Fawkes Day, which a holiday in the U.K., which is a one-territory holiday and it was unbelievably oppressive to give the movie done in time for that day," Silver explains. "It just was impossible."
Also on tap for 2006 is "The Visiting," an alien-themed drama that was originally positioned as yet another remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." The film, which stars Nicole Kidman and Bond-to-be Daniel Craig, underwent come creative changes under the watch of writer Dave Kajganich and the now-original project will be released next summer.
"It has the essence of a kind of insidious alien invasion, but it doesn't have anything to do with pods or anything like that," Silver says. "It's much more of an original idea, but it does take some notion from that original book, the Jack Finney book. He's making a dark, eerie picture."
Looking forward, Silver holds out hopes for his remake of "Logan's Run," a sci-fi epic Bryan Singer was supposed to direct before he was lured away by the Siren call of "Superman." Singer is still involved and the team is still waiting on script drafts from Oscar winner Christopher McQuarrie.
"Bryan, who is a very, very smart guy, a very talented guy, had been passionate about 'Logan's Run' for years, going back to the original book," Silver says. "He really sees it as something that's very right on the money for today and he's got a great vision for the movie and if all goes well, we'll be shooting that movie in about a year."
Silver hopes to have "Logan's Run" shooting next summer for a 2007 or 2008 release, though Singer's commitment to figure "Superman" installments could be an issue.
And how are things going with the "Wonder Woman" franchise?
"Joss Whedon's writing the script and he's really into it," he notes. He's had his hands full with 'Serenity' and now it's out. He's into it. He thinks he can do something really great and when he has a script that we all like, we'll try to make the movie."
Of casting the famous Amazon, he adds, "She's young in the movie. I don't know if it's gonna be somebody that we've heard of, but it might be."
And how about "The Brave One," a drama linked to Jodie Foster?
"It's kind of an urban thriller kind of thing, an interesting movie, a revenge-type movie," says the producer. "I'm just hoping we can do it. I love her. She's the greatest. We're working on the script. She's expressed interest in doing it, it's not happening yet. That was announced in the media, but it's not there."
While anticipating future Silver endeavors, "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" is now in limited release and will expand in the weeks to come.
"Goya's Ghosts" tells the story of the last years of the Spanish Inquisition, when the Church tortured and executed suspected Jews, as told by the painter, played by Stellan Skarsgard.
Portman plays Goya's muse Ines, falsely accused of heresy, while Bardem plays a sinister monk, Brother Lorenzo, the film production company said on Wednesday.
Goya (1746-1828), considered one of the fathers of modern art, was a bold and prolific court painter who continued working until he was 82.
His uncompromising attitude in depicting his time, which included Napoleon's invasion of Spain, has long made him a subject of fascination. There have been several films about his life, including one by renowned Spanish director Carlos Saura.
The film is Forman's first directing project since 1999's "Man on the Moon" and filming is due to start in September.
It is also Bardem's first major venture since starring in Alejandro Amenebar's 2005 Oscar-winning film "The Sea Inside."
The film earned the Spaniard the best actor prize at the Venice film festival for his role as a paraplegic fighting for his right to die.
Forman's Goya film is also backed by a clutch of renowned cinema veterans. It will be produced by Saul Zaentz, who worked on the Oscar-sweeping Amadeus directed by Forman 20 years ago, and also produced "The English Patient," another Oscar-winner.
The script is a collaboration between the Czech director and Jean Claude Carriere, who worked frequently with Spanish film maestro Luis Bunuel, most notably on "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" and "Belle de Jour."
The 27-year-old Kutcher has starred in the films "Guess Who" and "The Butterfly Effect," and produced MTV's "Punk'd" and WB's "Beauty and the Geek."
Lohan follows Kutcher, on the strength of reports the 19-year-old actress is now pulling down over $7 million per movie.
Readers picked Orlando Bloom for third place. Bloom, 28, has starred in the "Lord of the Rings" films, "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" and "Kingdom of Heaven."
Hilary Duff charts fourth on the magazine's Young Hollywood ladder. Duff, 17, spans music, movies, TV and fashion — including an accessories line called Stuff by Hilary Duff. She's followed by Reese Witherspoon, whose production company is aptly named Type A.
The list is rounded out by Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jessica Alba, Scarlett Johansson and Nick Cannon.
MOVIES
Choice Actress: Drama
Alexis Bledel, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants"
Amber Tamblyn, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants"
Brittany Murphy, "Little Black Book"
Kate Winslet, "Finding Neverland"
Kerry Washington, "Ray"
Natalie Portman, "Garden State," "Closer"
Rachel McAdams, "The Notebook"
Scarlett Johansson, "In Good Company"
Choice Actress: Action/Adventure/Thriller
Angelina Jolie, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"
Jennifer Garner, "Elektra"
Jessica Alba, "Sin City"
Keira Knightley, "King Arthur"
Elisha Cuthbert, "House of Wax"
Natalie Portman, "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith"
Penelope Cruz, "Sahara"
Sarah Michelle Gellar, "The Grudge"
"Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" held onto the top spot at the box office over the long Memorial Day weekend, hauling in an additional $70.75 million over the four-day stretch, a per-screen average of $19,315, according to estimates from box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "Sith's" Friday-to-Sunday total was $55.1 million, a dropoff of 49 percent from its $108.5 million take last weekend.
"Episode III" now ranks seventh all-time in receipts over the Memorial Day weekend, just ahead of its predecessors, "Episode I" and "Episode II." However, it falls well short of the top spot, held by last year's "Shrek 2" ($95.6 million).
DreamWorks' newest animated comedy, "Madagascar," won a tight battle for second place by raking in $61 million to beat Paramount's remake of "The Longest Yard" ($60 million) which stars Sandler as the quarterback/convict. "The Longest Yard" actually did better from Friday to Sunday, earning $49.1 million to "Madagascar's" $47.1 million, but Exhibitor Relations is perhaps figuring on more family viewing for the holiday to push the 'toon into second.
Sandler and Co. also had a better per-screen average, earning $16,511 at 3,634 sites compared to $14,766 on each of 4,131 screens for "Madagascar."
After the top three there was a steep drop, with "Monster-in-Law" clocking in at just over $11 million to finish fourth. The rest of the top 12, none of which made more than $6.6 million, are "Kicking & Screaming," "Crash," "The Interpreter," "Unleashed," "Kingdom of Heaven," "House of Wax," "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Ladies in Lavender."
The top 12 movies grossed a cumulative total of $225.5 million for the weekend, making it the second-best Memorial Day weekend ever. Nonetheless, that's still off about 5.5 percent from last year, when "Shrek 2" and "The Day After Tomorrow" led a record $238.7 million haul.
Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith continues its attack on the box office, hitting the $200 million mark in North America on Thursday night.
In doing so on its eighth day in release, the prequel ties last year's Spider-Man 2 as the fastest to reach that milestone. And its earning potential only looks up from there as Sith heads into the lucrative three-day Memorial Day weekend.
For box-office analysts, smashing the $200 million mark doesn't come as much of a surprise for a film that grossed a Jabba-sized $50 million in its first day in theaters on May 19.
"This is a phenomenal box-office achievement," Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking film Exhibitor Relations, tells E! Online. "The $50 million-dollar day was sort of a foregone conclusion it would be a sprinter to $200 million. And it's already the top-grossing film released this year."
After a record $158.4 million haul last weekend, Sith rang up $182.7 million by Tuesday to surpass yet another benchmark--Spider-Man 2's record for the biggest six-day gross. Wednesday's engagements added another $8.5 million, and with $9.1 million on Thursday, Sith has grossed $200.4 million going into the weekend, per BoxOfficeMojo.com. The prequel, which reportedly cost more than $110 million to produce, has also grossed nearly $160 million in foreign territories.
But the real question is whether Revenge of the Sith will be powerful enough to pull Hollywood out of its recent doldrums. So far, the answer appears to be yes.
"This is a movie that the industry needs right now and for it to make this much money this fast tells us there is an audience out there that wants to go to the movies," says Degarabedian. "But again, a Star Wars like this doesn't come along every day. And given it's the last Star Wars movie, it's not a surprise at all that it has reached this milestone so quickly."
Sith is on track to surpass Spider-Man 2's total domestic gross of $373 million and possibly hit the rarefied $400 million mark, a record achieved by only six other films, including the original 1977 Star Wars, aka Episode IV: A New Hope ($461 million), and 1999's Episode I--The Phantom Menace ($431 million). (Titanic's all-time record of $601 million is in its own solar system, far, far away.)
Those stats are all the more impressive considering it's not officially summer yet.
"Spidey 2 came out in July when all the kids were out of school, which helps the midweek grosses, and it also had the July 4 holiday to give it a boost, whereas Sith had just a regular May day," says Gitesh Pandya, editor of BoxOfficeGuru.com. "Also Spidey 2 had a normal second weekend that was not a holiday, whereas [Sith] has the Memorial Day weekend, which will help boost it even more."
Pandya adds that Sith's record-setting pace has been sparked by the film's mostly rave reviews, especially in light of its two near-universally panned predecessors.
"It's a matter of strong word of mouth and repeat business, which keeps the movie afloat."
Following an unprecedented worldwide roll-out that saw "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" launch in 105 countries on 10,300 screens, the film's international haul reached an estimated $144.7 million through Sunday (May 22).
The "Sith" launch was so massive that it makes any kind of apples-to-apples comparison impossible. In terms of pure monetary haul, the George Lucas epic smacked around the previous record, which was set when "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" made some $125.9 million in its first five days, though that film was only in 28 territories at the time, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "The Matrix Revolutions" made $119 in its first weekend, but that film was only showing in 94 countries.
"Sith" premiered far ahead of the $69.1 million pocketed by "Episode II -- Attack of the Clones," which launched in 67 countries in its first weekend.
Around the world, "Sith" delivered strong, but less-than-record-breaking figures. In the United Kingdom, the feature made $26.8 million on 485 screens, the territory's fourth largest premiere ever. In France, the $22.3 million haul was second all-time. Germany's $17.9 million take ranked behind only one other opening and Australia's $10.4 million gross was the best non-holiday opening.
The film's distributor 20th Century Fox notes that the $9.9 million Spanish box office was a local record.
Subsequent "Sith" releases are still scheduled for South Korea this week and for Japan in July.
The cumulative $158.5 mil easily beats "Matrix: Reloaded's" 134.3 million for the best four-day opening. In all, "Sith" boasts nearly 70 percent of the Top 12 ticket sales for the weekend, averaging $29,637 for each of its 3,661 screens. Despite this triumph, the film starring Hayden Christensen as the emergent Darth Vader may just be shy of the best three-day opening title after "Spider-Man's" $114.8 million in 2002, if estimates hold. This doesn't count "Sith's" Thursday's box-office take, only the Friday through Sunday earnings.
Audience members out of the loop this weekend found their way to the Jane Fonda-Jennifer Lopez "Monster-in-Law," making it the second-place film with $14.4 mil, while Will Ferrell's "Kicking & Screaming" only kicked up a little fuss with $10.5 million for third.
The ensemble drama "Crash" held its own at No. 4 with $5.5 mil, while the Jet Li martial arts flick "Unleashed" dropped two places with $3.8 million. The remaining films rounding out the Top 12 include the horrifying "House of Wax," Nicole Kidman's "The Interpreter," "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Mindhunters," "XXX: State of the Union" and the whistle-blowing documentary "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room."
Opening in limited release was the other "Exorcist" prequel, "Dominion," which only took in an average of $1,082 for each of its 110 screens, while the only two theaters showing the humorous "Sex, Politics & Cocktails" made off with an impressive $3,079 apiece.
Interestingly, "Sith's" domination still didn't completely revive the box office, making this the 13th "down" weekend in a row compared to 2004 numbers. The film monopolized audiences too well, with viewers only half-heartedly checking out the other films -- as compared to last year when "Troy" and "Van Helsing" still drew interest despite "Shrek 2's" supremacy. Overall, the Top 12 films this year earned $156.1 million, down 4.5 percent from the $163.4 million the same weekend last year.
These are estimates by Exhibitor Relations, which tracks box-office receipts daily.
George Lucas' "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" broke two records: besting "Shrek 2," which previously had the highest one-day earnings with $44.8 million, and then surpassing "Spider-Man 2's" best opening-day gross of $40.4 million.
"Fifty million is a good opening weekend, let alone a single day," Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, tells the AP. "This is the box-office equivalent of a 100-year flood."
"Sith" also made an impressive showing for its midnight debut screenings, which earned $16.5 million. Overall, the grand finale of the space opera averaged a hefty $13,661 for each of its 3,661 screens.
It's assumed that "Sith" will continue to break records and easily pass the $100 million mark in its debut weekend.
It seems George Lucas has listened to fans' complaints and entreaties, particularly in regard to the last two films released. The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones were disappointing and dull. It almost seemed that Lucas was driving the franchise into the ground. But he wisely eliminated the cutesy touches and minimized characters such as Jar Jar Binks (a major character in Phantom Menace but only an extra in this one) and the plodding exposition and concentrated on the epic tale of a good guy gone bad.
We learn how the powerful but impetuous Jedi Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) becomes Darth Vader. And most important, we learn why. In Star Wars: A New Hope, the fourth in the series and the original film released in 1977, Vader was creepy, but mostly just an archetypal villain with a bad case of mouth-breathing.
Revenge of the Sith chronicles Skywalker's transformation from a principled, love-struck young knight to the epitome of evil. It offers some terrific lightsaber battles, particularly between Anakin and his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) with a terrifyingly fiery backdrop.
There are major improvements in quality over the previous two films, notably the writing and the acting. Christensen and Natalie Portman as Senator (formerly Queen) Padmé Amidala, in particular, seem more comfortable and less stilted. McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi has grown more assured as well.
In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin grows impatient with Obi-Wan, and falls more deeply in love with Amidala. His love for her is also his undoing, sharpened by memories of his mother's brutal death and his inability to save her.
The screenplay is tighter, the dialogue sharper and the pacing right on the mark. When you watch the first three films released more than two decades ago -A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi- they feel slower and plodding compared with Sith, which achieves just the right balance of emotional drama, suspense and action. Also, beloved characters from Episodes IV-VI are featured more prominently (Yoda) or introduced (Chewbacca). It's also the first time we hear James Earl Jones' voice as Darth Vader, one of the most memorable vocal performances in film.
Perhaps Revenge of the Sith is all the more powerful because so many lingering questions are answered, in particular, the true identity of the Sith lord who lures Anakin to the dark side. And seeing the handsome Anakin's physical transformation to the malevolent, black-helmeted Darth Vader is riveting.
There's also a poignancy to this film because it is Lucas' final installment to one of the most groundbreaking cinematic endeavors ever made.
But there are some jarring disconnects when watching the series as a whole, from the rapid aging of Obi-Wan to the disparity in special effects from the first three films to the last.
A cautionary note: This is the only one of the six movies rated PG-13, and there is some disturbing violence. The very young ones should be left at home. But for adults who may have avoided the series, this is the one to see. Even for non-fans, Revenge of the Sith is engrossing, and fans of the series will likely be over the moon - and into another galaxy - with this film.
The Force is strong with "Episode III — Revenge of the Sith," the sixth and final piece in George Lucas' galactic saga, which represents a welcome return to the ideas and the spirit that made his original "Star Wars" a pop-culture juggernaut 28 years ago.
The circle is now complete, as Lucas' characters are fond of saying, and much of the film's joy comes from watching these familiar names and events fall into place.
It is enormously satisfying to see young Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) teeter along the edge that separates good and evil, and to see what finally pushes the would-be Chosen One over to the dark side of the Force.
It's a wonderful, small discovery when Anakin receives the name Darth Vader once he finally swears his allegiance to Chancellor Palpatine, who reveals himself here as Darth Sidious, a Sith master and the eventual evil Emperor. (And all the other words that ooze from Ian McDiarmid's mouth leave you feeling so slimy, you'll want to take a shower afterward.)
But the moment we've all been waiting for is one that simply must be experienced in a packed theater: when the mask goes on and the helmet comes down and Anakin takes his first raspy breath as Darth Vader in all his dark, gleaming glory. (You won't hear anyone else breathing, it's such an absorbing sight.)
The iconography is powerful to behold, especially when compared to the horrendously disappointing Episodes I and II. In retrospect, the first two "Star Wars" prequels seem even more useless, with their stilted dialogue and their numbing, CGI-infused clone battles.
Lucas wisely has placed the emphasis this time on elaborate lightsaber duels — between Anakin and mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) against the Sith lord Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), and ultimately between Anakin and Obi-Wan themselves. Some of the biggest thrills come from tiny Yoda, the Jedi master who's at the height of his powers here. He does as much damage with a well-chosen, structurally inverted phrase or the subtlest wrinkle of his round, green face as he does with a swing of his lightsaber. (And Yoda has mad skills.)
Lucas' writing still clangs, though, especially during the exchanges between Anakin and his secret bride, Senator Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), who announces in Episode III that she's pregnant (with twins we've come to know as Luke and Leia in Episode IV, the original "Star Wars").
"You are so beautiful," Anakin dreamily tells Padme as she brushes her dark, flowing locks on a balcony in the moonlight.
"Only because I'm so in love," Padme coos back to him.
Thankfully, Lucas also didn't saddle her with the heavy headgear and distracting dresses she wore in Episodes I and II, or else she would barely be able to get up and move about the galaxy.
That love for Padme, though, is partly the inspiration for Anakin's conversion. Not to give too much away, but he becomes convinced that Padme is in danger, and the only way to save her is through the powers that come with dark-side membership.
He's actually just being manipulated by Palpatine/Darth Sidious, who wants to turn the Galactic Republic into his own Empire and sees him as a malleable apprentice, especially at a time when Anakin isn't getting the respect and authority he craves from the Jedi Council.
"Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose," Yoda warns Anakin, but it's too late — and we know it's too late, and that built-in expectation is much of what makes "Revenge of the Sith" so riveting.
It's also a visually wondrous film, though. Lucas uses the digital technology to far greater advantage than he did in the first two prequels, which too often had the glossy, detached look of a video game. Crisp daylight streams through the floor-to-ceiling windows of Padme's apartment, and the cityscapes consist of silvery skyscrapers and golden sunsets. Even Chewbacca and his Wookiee buddies look lifelike as they scamper in battle across the beaches and jungles of the planet Kashyyyk.
Clearly, this is Lucas' war protest movie — Obi-Wan shoots a character down with a gun once his lightsaber is knocked away from him, and afterward sniffs, "So uncivilized." But it's also, at its core, a soap opera. It always has been. Think of Darth Vader telling Luke Skywalker, "I am your father," during the heat of battle in "The Empire Strikes Back." Episode III features fast-paced parallel editing between two staples of daytime TV: a childbirth and a complicated operation.
But despite its drama and darkness, Lucas gives us some light moments, too. He slips in a glimpse of the much-maligned Jar Jar Binks at the very end, and although the big, goofy Gungan doesn't say anything, his presence alone feels like Lucas' last little dig at the naysayers — and a reminder with this final farewell that, nearly 30 years later, he's still doing it his way.
"Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith," a Twentieth Century Fox release, is rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some intense images. Running time: 142 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
Given the high ticket costs at the premieres Thursday in San Francisco and nine other cities — the proceeds go to charity — crowds will likely include well-heeled moviegoers as well as those who pawned vintage action figures to score a ticket. The film opens to the public at midnight showings May 19.
"Revenge of the Sith"_ the last installment the "Star Wars" series — chronicles Anakin Skywalker's transformation from hero to villain Darth Vader. The film may be the darkest chapter in the "Star Wars" story, featuring more violence and a story line showing how a democratic government turns into a despotic regime.
"I'd say they (premiere ticket holders) are in for the best movie since the first," said Terry McGovern of San Anselmo, Calif., who voiced a stormtrooper in the original "Star Wars."
McGovern saw the film in a private screening for George Lucas' friends and family.
Lucas was expected at the San Francisco premiere. Jake Lloyd, who played the young Anakin Skywalker in "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace," also was supposed to attend.
Guests were set to watch a digital version of the film and attend an after-party where they could swat a pinata shaped like the Death Star and munch on "Wookie cookies."
Samuel Jackson, who plays Jedi Master Mace Windu, was slated to attend a Los Angeles red-carpet premiere along with Mark Hamill and Billy Dee Williams, who starred in the original trilogy.
Carrie Fisher — Princess Leia in the original trilogy — was set to go to the Washington, D.C., premiere. And in Miami, premiere organizers planned to re-create the cantina scene from the original "Star Wars."
Lucas has used previous premieres to raise money for charitable causes. Money raised at the San Francisco event will go to the Koret Family House, a group providing housing for seriously ill children seeking treatment away from home.
This year, the red-hot Desperate Housewives actress has catapulted to the top spot in the special issue, which hits stands May 19.
She follows an impressive list of previous No. 1's, including Jessica Simpson (this year's No. 9), Jessica Alba (this year's No. 5), Christina Aguilera (this year's No. 16) and Jennifer Garner (this year's No. 3).
"It's kind of exciting and shocking all at the same time, because I was No. 91 last year," says the Mexican-American beauty, 30. Longoria called in from her L.A. home shortly before taking off for Canada to begin work on the feature film The Sentinel.
"Considering all the women in the world, No. 91 isn't all that bad. But (last year) I didn't go to the (annual Hot 100 celebration) party, because I don't think anyone wants the 90s at the party."
Longoria, who appeared on the January 2005 cover of Maxim, is the only one of the Housewives on the list, but her co-stars aren't surprised. Co-star Felicity Huffman says, "What's hot about Eva is her smile, her laugh, her joie de vivre ... and following all of that, her (behind)."
"What doesn't make her a hottie?" asks Jesse Metcalfe, the lucky young buck who gets to share a bed and sometimes a bath with Longoria on ABC's hit prime-time soap. "She's pretty much flawless. She's not a diva in any way. Normally, when they're that hot, they're not that cool."
Longoria, who says she has a steady beau (but won't say who), credits her TV character with helping to elevate her Maxim ranking. "Maxim and Gabrielle go hand in hand," she says of the mag aimed at young men. "Gabrielle's sexy, confident and sensual, and I think Maxim shows those beautiful qualities in their women. When you look at the Top 10, it's singers or working actors who are doing really good things in the entertainment business."
This year, Longoria outranks such popular leading ladies as Tom Cruise's new love, Katie Holmes (No. 22); Catwoman Halle Berry (No. 41); and Star Wars queen Natalie Portman (No. 42).
Though thrilled to be No. 1, Longoria would place No. 7 Angelina Jolie - Brad Pitt's "pal" and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' goodwill ambassador - atop her own personal hot list.
"Angelina is the definition of sexy," Longoria says. "Everything about her is sexy - her empowerment, confidence, strength, beauty, character, her morals and what she stands for."
Other stars making the eighth annual installment of the list: Jessica Alba, Britney Spears, Jake Gyllenhaal, Elijah Wood, Lindsay Lohan, Natalie Portman, Destiny's Child, rapper T.I. and the cast of Fox's "The O.C." — minus Benjamin McKenzie, who is 26.
The list is featured in the magazine's latest issue, on newsstands Friday.
Timberlake, 24, has been on the list five times since 2000. What's keeping him hot? "Helping make Snoop Dogg's `Signs' a hit and his role in the film `Edison,'" the magazine said.
As for Lohan, star of the upcoming movie "Herbie: Fully Loaded," Teen People said: "She's bounced back from controversy to remain one of the hottest stars around."
Lohan -- last year's breakthrough-performance winner -- was nominated for best female performance for "Mean Girls," while McAdams was nominated in the same category for "The Notebook," MTV said on its Web site.
"Mean Girls" also picked up a nod for best on-screen team -- including both actresses -- while McAdams was nominated for best villain and best female breakthrough performance in the film about feuding high school cliques.
"Anchorman," starring Will Ferrell, also grabbed four nominations -- for best comedic performance for Ferrell, best on-screen team, best fight and best musical performance.
MTV's movie awards, to be presented in June in Los Angeles, come in the middle of Hollywood's summer film season and feature stars of the hottest upcoming titles.
Unlike more traditional showbiz honors such as the Oscars, MTV offers fans a ceremony filled with irreverent sketches, stars cutting loose and buckets of golden popcorn for winners of such categories as best fight, best villain and best kiss.
McAdams is among the contenders for best kiss for her smooch with Ryan Gosling in "The Notebook," but faces tough competition from the likes of Natalie Portman in "Garden State" and Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law in "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow."
Elisha Cuthbert and Emile Hirsch also are nominated for their clinch in "The Girl Next Door," as are Jennifer Garner and Natassia Malthe for their same-sex kiss in "Elektra."
Last year's best fight winner Uma Thurman was nominated again for her clash with Daryl Hannah in "Kill Bill: Vol. 2."
Announcing the nominations on its Web site, MTV invited readers to vote for their favorites on a list that included a number of films shunned by the more mainstream awards such as the Oscars and the Golden Globes.
The legendary epic "Troy" may not have made the grade for the Oscars, but the film's star, Brad Pitt, may be consoled by his nomination for best fight alongside Eric Bana.
The full list of nominations can be see at www.mtv.com
With 19 days to go before the film's first public showing, the around-the-clock line debuted to the beat of Star War tunes from a boombox swung by Bobafett, a bounty-hunter character in an outfit sprayed with silvery chrome.
"We all know what it's like to go through this insanity even though its temporary," said Steve Lorenzo, 39, a technical writer for a software company. "It's like a class or family reunion even though it's not."
Yet the pack's eager anticipation over "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith" was tinged with sadness that the new film would be the last silver screen glimpse into a parallel universe of space-fought intrigue played out over six films.
"It's kind of bittersweet; it's the last one which makes it more emotional," said Chris Bergoch, one of the 300 people signed for the line. "You want to look forward to the movie, but then again you almost don't want since there won't be another one again."
The event follows another nonstop street-side countdown kicked off by fervid Star War fans on April 2 across the country in Hollywood.
Opening on May 19, "Episode III" completes a trilogy which is a prequel to the original three films. The series has generated nearly $3.4 billion in global box office and an estimated $9 billion in retail sales since the first film appeared in 1977.
Registering for the stand-a-thon outside the Ziegfeld, New York's largest stand-alone movie theater, were fans drawn from 22 U.S. states and nine foreign countries, mainly West European but also including Japan, Peru and Brazil.
An idealistic sheen to the waiting game is that time spent on the line is money that goes to a charity for severely ill children, Starlight Starbright. Benefactors contribute a sum to the charity for every hour that each participant stands on line.
About $33,000 was raised in similar lines formed in New York before "Star War" movie premieres in 1999 and 2002. Those events produced friendships, including a few which blossomed into marriages.
SPOILERS VS. NON-SPOILERS
Victor Lundberg, 27, from Gothenburg, Sweden, said he met his wife Emily Schildt, of Seward, Nebraska, in the first "stand-a-thon" formed before the 1999 premiere of "Episode I: The Phantom Menace."
"I told him not to propose to me in the second line" which formed in 2002 for "Episode II: Attack of the Clones," recalled Schildt, smiling at the remembrance.
Openly admitting to a conflict, the two say they are in opposite Star War camps: the Spoilers vs. the non-Spoilers.
The first wants to know as much as possible about the movie, characters and plot, the second doesn't want to know anything or as little as can be possible amid the marketing blitz preceding the movie, which includes the launch of dozens of toys based on movie characters.
In Los Angeles, the spoilers' group dynamic is more complex, with three color coded levels for fans gathered a few feet away from Grauman's Chinese Theatre amid the hustle and bustle of Hollywood's tourist trade.
Red is for would-be know-nothings. Blue indicates they will look at official information and movie trailers, but don't want to hear about plot and story issues. A green spoiler wants to know everything.
What makes it easy to recognize each person's spoiler level is their official laminated badges, which happen to glow in the dark.
The Hollywood group is also linked online to the Starlight Starbright charity.
According to British media reports, it took only five minutes for fans to scoop up all available tickets for the orgy of screenings that will begin at 7 a.m. and will feature all six "Star Wars" films showing back-to-back for the very first time, culminating in the first public screening of "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith." The sixth film in the blockbuster space opera franchise will premiere the day before, out-of-competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
Tickets for the marathon went on sale on Monday (April 25), but with a legion of fans queuing all weekend for the ducats, which ran a mere 50 quid, there was little hope for casual filmgoers to get a piece of the action.
"From the minute this special screening was announced we've been inundated with calls and emails from people across the globe," says Katy Harris, a spokesperson for the UCI Empire, one of the Leicester Square theaters taking part in the festivities. We've had enquiries from as far afield as Australia and USA with fans planning to jet in for this once in a lifetime experience. This is the fastest-selling screening we've ever had at the Empire."
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas is expected to attend the celebration, as will Hayden Christensen, whose Anakin Skywalker finally transforms into Darth Vader during "Revenge of the Sith." An army of storm troopers will also be on hand, just in case the fans become too rowdy.
Mandate Pictures is fully financing the film as well as handling worldwide sales.
The film will mark the directorial debut of Zach Helm, who will direct from his own script. Helm wrote the comedy "Stranger Than Fiction" for Mandate, which goes into production Monday, with Marc Forster directing a cast that includes Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman and Queen Latifah. Sony Pictures recently acquired Helm's "Stranger Than Fiction" from Mandate and will release it next year.
Portman most recently was seen in Mike Nichols' "Closer," for which she received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress after winning a Golden Globe in the same category. She also appeared last year in Zach Braff's "Garden State." Portman has starred as the female lead, Queen Amidala, in George Lucas' blockbuster "Star Wars" prequels and next can be seen reprising her role in "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith."
Portman currently is shooting the sci-fi thriller "V for Vendetta."
Helm also is writing a script called "The Disassociate" and is the author of the plays "Last Chance for a Slow Dance" and "Good Canary."
The "Star Wars" marathon will take place one day after the final installment, "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith," marks its world premiere in an out-of-competition screening at this year's Festival de Cannes.
London's entertainment center plays host to large state-of-the-art theaters owned by the biggest players in the U.K. exhibition industry and is regarded by the industry and public alike as the No. 1 location to host high-profile movie events.
During the unique daylong Leicester Square extravaganza, London's premier theaters -- UCI Empire, the Odeon Leicester Square and Vue -- will unspool screenings of the previous five movies before the day culminates in the U.K. premiere of the sixth installment at the Odeon Leicester Square, the largest theater in the United Kingdom. Fans who have bought special passes for all six movies will be able to view "Sith" in the UCI Empire after the five previous movies.
Writer-director George Lucas and the stars of the movie, including Hayden Christensen and Ian McDiarmid, are expected to jet in from the French Riviera to attend the May 16 premiere, organizers said.
Fans also will be able to attend special free performances of "Star Wars" music presented by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, while a host of stormtroopers will populate the square.
The sixth and final installment goes into general release in the United Kingdom, as well as the U.S., on May 19.
As well as featuring some of the world's great directors, there will also be an out-of-competition premiere for the eagerly awaited final installment of George Lucas's "Star Wars" series, organizers said Tuesday.
Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," a searing attack on President Bush and his reaction to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, won the coveted Palme d'Or in 2004, fighting off competition from, among others, animation flick "Shrek 2."
This year things will be different, with no documentaries or animation among the 20 competition entries.
Cannes organizers described the more conservative line-up this time around as a reflection of the kind of films being made.
"Last year we wanted to present the importance of documentary cinema and animation," said Thierry Fremaux, who heads selection at the world's top cinema showcase.
"This year, there is a return to a certain classicism, the great authors, many of whom have already been in the competition," he told a news briefing in Paris.
Treading the red carpets in the French Riviera resort will be legendary directors such as Canadian-born David Cronenberg, American Gus Van Sant and Germany's Wim Wenders.
Cronenberg's "A History of Violence" stars Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris, while Wenders's "Don't Come Knockin"' features Jessica Lange and Tim Roth.
Denmark's Lars von Trier, whose "Manderlay" is in competition, has also attracted an impressive cast including Willem Dafoe, Danny Glover and Lauren Bacall.
Von Trier, Van Sant and Wenders have all previously won the Palme d'Or.
ASIANS ASCENDANT
Against such established figures are several Asian film-makers; Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai with "Shanghai Dreams," Taiwan-based Hou Hsiao-Hsien with "The Best of Our Times," and Japan's Masahiro Kobayashi with "Bashing."
Hollywood actor Tommy Lee Jones, famous for his roles in the "Men in Black" comedy series, makes his directorial debut with "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada," in which he also stars.
Lucas will be hoping to win over the critics with the final installment of the hugely successful "Star Wars" franchise after a disappointing reception for his last two offerings.
He has described "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" as a "'Titanic' in space" and a "real tearjerker." The "Star Wars" films, which began in 1977, have sold nearly $3.4 billion worth of tickets worldwide.
Organizers noted that there were less European films in the main competition than normal, and they broke with tradition by not announcing the full jury line-up at the same time as revealing the selection.
The jury will be headed by Bosnian director Emir Kusturica.
Horror film fans can look forward to a random 20-minute collage of scenes from George Romero's works to be shown, naturally, Friday, May 13.
Fans will have to battle it out -- lightsabers optional -- at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, April 2 when 316 Toys "R" Us stores across the country open their doors to reveal the special feature shops boasting merchandise inspired by "Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith," the final film in George Lucas' epic space opera series.
In addition to the nationwide release of the toys, a celebration will take place in New York's Times Square where fans are encouraged to dress as characters from the films. Devotees will be treated to prizes for answering trivia and special appearances from "Star Wars"-inspired M&M characters such as M-Vader and Mobi-Wan Kenobi. If only we were making this up ...
"Fans of the 'Star Wars' saga have been eagerly anticipating the final installment of the film franchise and the availability of its related merchandise," says Toys "R" US President John Barbour. "The Toys 'R' Us team and our vendor partners have worked hard to deliver an exciting selection of new and unique products for our 'Star Wars' collector customers and fans of all ages."
Besides the requisite action figures, electronic lightsabers and toy vehicles, the stores will carry Darth Vader voice changers, lego "Episode III" scenes and the Trivial Pursuit DVD and Stratego "Star Wars" Saga Edition games.
Additional "Episode III" toys -- including and Anakin Skywalker Jedi starfighter and a holographic Yoda figure -- will roll out later, before the worldwide release of the film on Thursday, May 19.
The highly anticipated "Episode III" is set two years into the Clone Wars, when Chancellor Palpatine, with the help of his clone army and Sith Warriors, prepares to rid the galaxy of the Jedis in order to declare himself Emperor of the Galactic Empire. Anakin Skywalker will also make his final descent into evil, becoming the heavy-breathing, helmeted Darth Vader.
"It's not like the first one. It's more emotional," said the director of space adventure, "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith," which arrives in theaters May 19.
"I describe it as a 'Titanic' in space. It's a real tearjerker, and it will be received in a way that none of us can expect," he told theater owners at the ShoWest convention.
ShoWest is a major gathering of movie theater owners in the United States and a launch pad for Hollywood's summer movies.
Film studio Twentieth Century Fox teased a packed house here with the first six minutes of "Revenge of the Sith," marking the first time the scenes had been shown to audiences.
Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and master Obi-Wan Kenobe (Ewan McGregor) wage a furious fight against their adversaries in a battle of deadly spaceships. In this episode, Skywalker becomes the notorious Darth Vader.
Lucas and the promotional clip did not divulge much about the "tearjerker" love story. But Senator Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), who married Skywalker in a secret ceremony witnessed in the last movie, plays a key role.
If Lucas's comparison to "Titanic" is to be believed, there must be heartbreak in "Revenge of the Sith" because 1997's tale of the doomed ocean liner, "Titanic," stirred audiences with its tale of an ill-fated affair between characters played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
Love can work wonders with movie audiences. "Titanic" is the highest grossing movie of all time with more than $1.8 billion in worldwide ticket sales, surpassing No. 2 "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" with $1.1 billion.
The "Star Wars" films are no box office losers, either, but there hasn't been much romance in them -- not yet, anyway.
The adventures began with 1977's "Star Wars" and have sold nearly $3.4 billion worth of tickets at global box offices.
As promised, the final installment of the space opera is darker and more intense, as evidenced by the numerous clashes in the preview, which played at the end of the "O.C.'s" Thursday, March 10 episode.
The highly anticipated "Episode III" is set two years into the Clone Wars, when Chancellor Palpatine, with the help of his clone army and Sith Warriors, prepares to rid the galaxy of the Jedis in order to declare himself Emperor of the Galactic Empire. The film sets up the mysterious circumstances in which 1977's "Episode IV" begins, namely: Anakin Skywalker's (Hayden Christensen) capitulation to the dark side to become Darth Vader and the birth -- and subsequent separation -- of twins Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker.
The trailer features battle after battle, most notably the conflict between Anakin and Obi-Wan -- which has earned the moniker "The Duel." The two are shown swiping at each other while swinging on ropes over a lake of fire and employing The Force.
But wait. There's more. Other combative encounters include: Obi-Wan engaging in fisticuffs with General Grievous, Palpatine threatening Mace Windu and a gang of Jedi, Yoda and Darth Sidious (Palpatine again) wielding lightsabers in the Senate chambers, and Anakin battling Count Dooku and a host of other foolish mortals who cross his path.
Topping off these chaotic images is Master Yoda's observation (in his signature inverse grammar): "Twisted by the Dark Side young Skywalker becomes."
With this much carnage, even George Lucas is cautious about the film's suitability for younger audiences.
"I don't think I would take a 5- or a 6-year-old to this. It's way too strong," Lucas says on the Sunday, March 13 edition of CBS' "60 Minutes." "My feeling is that it will probably be a PG-13, so it will be the first 'Star Wars' that's a PG-13."
Anyone frustrated by the trailer's sluggish speed online can check out the real thing attached to prints of the CG-animated "Robots," currently in theaters. "Revenge of the Sith" aims for world domination beginning Thursday, May 19.
The full-length "Revenge of the Sith" trailer will get its theatrical premiere the next day, attached to prints of the 20th Century Fox animated film "Robots." The completed George Lucas epic, the final part in a trilogy of prequels leading up to the trilogy that shaped a generation in the late '70s and '80s, will spread around the world on Thursday, May 19.
Naturally, FOX is offering no hints as to when the trailer -- featuring the film's stars Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor -- will actually air.
The March 10 episode, titled "The Mallpisode" also boasts guest stars Billy Campbell ("Once and Again") and Johnny Messner ("Anacondas") and a soundtrack highlighting five songs -- four world premieres -- from Beck's new album "Guero," in stores on Tuesday, March 29.
"I really don't want to offend anyone's beliefs or impose anything on anyone and it was mistaken to do it," Portman told "Access Hollywood" in an interview broadcast Monday.
The 23-year-old Israeli-born actress and her crew were confronted by ultra-Orthodox Jewish worshippers last week while filming the scene with Israeli actor Aki Avni. The incident underlined the sensitivity of the site, a remnant of the biblical Jewish temples, the holiest place where Jews can pray.
The site is controlled by strictly observant Jews. Male and female worshippers are separated by a barrier perpendicular to the wall, following Orthodox Jewish rules forbidding casual contact between the sexes.
"As soon as it offended people, we moved," Portman said. "We had a very hectic work schedule, so we weren't thinking. We shouldn't have done it."
"Access Hollywood" also aired an interview with Antonio Banderas, who explained why his wife, Melanie Griffith, arrived at the Academy Awards show Sunday with a broken foot.
Banderas said Griffith "was a little upset with her performance and she kicked in the door" while playing Roxie Hart in the musical "Chicago."
Said Griffith: "I was singing and I am not a singer."
On a break from blockbusters, the "Closer" star traveled to a Dead Sea oasis -- a record 1,300 feet below sea level -- while making an independent film about inter-racial cooperation amid the Israeli-Arab conflict. "It was an amazing experience to work here, and really to get to see places that I have never seen," Portman, 23, told Reuters Television on the set of "Free Zone."
"It was camel-birthing season and there were just tons of baby camels..." she said. "I think it's always good to try something new and try to adjust to different ways of working. You know, it's good to throw yourself off as an actor."
Portman was born in Jerusalem to an Israeli father and American mother, so "Free Zone" was also a chance to explore her own mixed heritage.
In the film directed by the award-winning Amos Gitai, she plays Rebecca, an American who falls in love with an Israeli and becomes embroiled in a scheme to sell cars in a free-trade zone founded as part of the peace accord with neighboring Jordan.
The ensuing desert road trip brings Rebecca into contact with Arabs, Jews, and the challenges of cultural identity. "It definitely is informed by the fact I was born in Israel and raised in the States. There's sort of a split between where you belong and not quite knowing where you belong," she said.
Best known as the heroine of the recent "Star Wars" trilogy, Portman sought out Gitai after seeing his films "Kadosh," an examination of the lives of ultra-Orthodox Jews, and "Kippur," about the director's experiences in the 1973 Middle East war.
She was no stranger to Jewish-oriented themes, having played Anne Frank, the doomed Dutch teen-ager whose World War II diary became a memento of the Holocaust, on Broadway in 1997.
"In a way it ('Free Zone') is a kind of voyage into a place, but it is also a voyage into her own interior, to find something of herself," Gitai said.
PEACE AND THE PRIZE
Portman is up for an Academy Award for her supporting role in "Closer," a film version of the acclaimed 1997 play by Patrick Marber about two men and two women who meet, fall in love, betray one other and ultimately destroy themselves.
"'Closer' was an amazing experience to work on -- the director, and the scriptwriter, and the actors and the crew, it was really, really a fulfilling work experience," she said.
Director Mike Nichols described the film as an ode to "the importance of lying." By contrast, "Free Zone" is free of artifice, with Gitai letting the performances guide the script. "With Amos suddenly things can change really from one day to another, and we have completely something else," said Portman's co-star Hiyam Abbas. "You don't really have the limit between your own person and the character you're playing."
The improvisation was a new challenge for Harvard-educated Portman, as she also had to draw on her native Hebrew, and Arabic learned during studies in Jerusalem last year.
"It's completely unconventional, so there is no way to prepare for this, just to come open-minded and ready to commit to his (Gitai's) vision," she said. "I'm sure I have some memories that are stuck in Hebrew in my mind."
Renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians after four years of fighting, Portman noted, lent a special resonance to "Free Zone"'s co-existence motif.
"I think we are all praying that all the political progress that is being made right now will continue and bring some sanity to the region, because it is just -- the people are missing out, because it's young people who are suffering the most," she said.
Portman's next project is "V for Vendetta," an action thriller by the creators of the $1.6 billion-grossing "Matrix" films. Though the Oscar nomination has boosted her Hollywood pull, she plans to keep her professional repertoire diverse.
"The work is always the prize, and I have never had any experience with prizes or anything, so I never really thought about them much. So (the nomination) was a nice surprise."
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish worshippers in Israel objected to the starlet's embracing and kissing scene with her "Free Zone" co-star near Jerusalem's Western Wall on Tuesday, Feb. 22, reports the AP.
The project centers on two women (Portman and Carmen Maura) who embark on a road trip after they are brought together by circumstance.
The holy site separates male and female worshippers with a barrier since Orthodox Jewish rules forbid casual contact between the sexes. When worshippers witnessed the amorous display by Portman and the Israeli Aki Avni, they stormed the couple and shouted "Immoral, immoral." Police had to step in and ask the actors to leave.
State law prohibits romantic interaction or acting near the wall. "That code was not followed," says rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch.
The Jerusalem-born Portman can speak fluent Hebrew and has been studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in the past few months.
Portman is Oscar-nominated for her supporting role in "Closer." Her other film credits include "The Professionals," "Beautiful Girls," "Mars Attacks!," "Anywhere But Here," "Where the Heart Is," "Cold Mountain," "Garden State" and the "Star Wars" prequels, with the final one opening nationwide in May.
The 23-year-old star will make her first appearance as a presenter at the upcoming 77th Academy Awards.
Portman is currently nominated for her supporting role as the woman-child Alice in the big-screen adaptation of Patrick Marber's play "Closer." Co-star Clive Owen is also nominated in the supporting actor category.
Her previous films include "The Professionals," "Beautiful Girls," "Mars Attacks!," "Anywhere But Here," "Where the Heart Is," "Cold Mountain," "Garden State" and the "Star Wars" prequels, with the final one opening nationwide in May.
She is currently on location filming "Free Zone" and will begin production on "V for Vendetta" later this year.
The Academy Awards ceremony will be televised live from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, Feb. 27.
The film version of Patrick Marber's acclaimed stage play, at the top of the box office charts for the second week running, won Golden Globe awards for Clive Owen and Natalie Portman.
The film, which also stars Jude Law and Julia Roberts, earned over four million pounds in its first two weeks.
Spoof puppet thriller "Team America: World Police", made by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, remained in second spot.
The satire on U.S. President George W. Bush's war on terror features Thunderbirds-style heroes battling to save the world from a power-hungry dictator.
Spooky thriller "White Noise" and Martin Scorsese's award-winning "The Aviator" remained in third and fourth place respectively.
"Million Dollar Baby," Clint Eastwood's well-received drama about a woman determined to become a boxer, stayed in fifth.
Assassin thriller "Elektra" entered the charts in sixth place while "Ray", about the life of soul singer Ray Charles, made its debut at seven.
"Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events" dropped two places to eighth while Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta's "Ladder 49" about firefighters entered in ninth.
Animated film "The Incredibles" rounded out the top 10.
The winners of 77th Academy Awards will be announced on Sunday, Feb. 27, and will be telecast live by ABC from the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland.
"In barely there bombs, she's a taste-free pain. Let's crown her the Tacky Temptress of Wisteria Lane," he wrote in a statement released Tuesday.
Lindsay Lohan was the next target of the acid-tongued critic, who called the starlet "over-hyped and under-dressed."
Blackwell gave kudos, however, to "fabulous fashion independents" Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman, Barbara Walters, Kate Winslet, Annette Bening , Oprah Winfrey, Scarlett Johansson, Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Garner and Sheridan's on-screen nemesis Teri Hatcher.
This is the 45th year that Blackwell, a former fashion designer, has offered his best- and worst-dressed list.
Last year's worst-dressed star, hotel heiress Paris Hilton of "The Simple Life," dropped to No. 5. "This is one Hilton that should be closed for renovation!" according to Blackwell.
Other fashion losers include Anna Nicole Smith, Meryl Streep, Paula Abdul, Britney Spears, Courtney Love and Serena Williams — who Blackwell described as "courting disaster."
Sisters Jessica and Ashlee Simpson tied for third place. "These two prove that bad taste is positively genetic!" Blackwell said.
Blackwell said he couldn't wait to bid farewell to 2004, the year of many "wardrobe malfunctions."
He added: Here's hoping 2005 takes the ultra-feminine look to new heights. Elegance, classicism and restraint are never out of style. Neither is a good 3-way mirror."