The Arclight had a midnight showing of Roland Emmerich's Salute To Jake Gyllenhaal's Dreamy Eyes, which usually indicates that they're expecting a large, movie-hungry mob. What did they get? A small group of Republican protesters pissed that the Dems think TDAT is a nifty treatise on global warming. Hilarious politics + fluffy supposed-event movie = buzz minus.
Why spend the weekend enjoying time with friends, chilling by the pool, or eating burgers when you can be lining Hollywood's pockets?
No corporate beheading is complete without an email assuring everyone that it was the beheadee's idea to "step down" from the guillotine platform. It doesn't seem that E! employees are exactly throwing themselves in front of buses in a show of solidarity; says one, "This is the best thing to happen to company morale in years." Maybe she would've been better loved if she hadn't supposedly taken away everyone's paper cups for coffee and water to fatten E!'s bottom line?
Sometimes this gig is just so depressing. Says a reader:
The LAT prints its follow-up to yesterday's dirt-flinging story about the imminent firing of E! CEO Mindy Herman. (Which, by the way, mentions her meeting with E! lieutenants early Thursday morning in which she proclaimed she wasn't "going anywhere," a meeting noted on Defamer while it was still in progress.) A press release announcing her departure was released shortly after that meeting, illustrating that "I'm not going anywhere" loosely translates to "start packing up my office." As of the close of business yesterday, E!'s staff was still in the dark about her—get ready, here it comes—ankling.
The latest chapter in the saga of whom we dubbed "Crapulent Staffer at the Upfronts" and whom bitchy cold-coast cousin Gawker demurely named "Miss Poopy Pants" has been written. And it's vigilante justice at its finest: An outraged reader decided to trace the email to its corporate rumor-mongering source and out the sender to his bosses. We bet that today The Boy Who Cried Poop will be the one crapping his Dockers in some HR functionary's office as VPs somberly read back the litany of less-than-inspired shit puns. Maybe they'll take some photos!
Reuters lands an interview with supposedly A-list actor/pseudonymous blogger Rance. (Full disclosure: Defamer was interviewed for the story.) As we expected, Rance doesn't really give up any nuggets that might lead to his outster from the "mystery" blogging ranks. But the article claims that "it was never his intention to play hide-and-seek with the world," which stinks just a bit of the bullshit. Hello, world, I'm this totally famous actor, but don't go and try and figure out who I am! Did I mention I'm nailing this actress whose name I can't print?
The NYT and the LAT have printed their largely snore-inducing Graydon Carter stories. But FWD's Daily Spy hears that the Wall Street Journal stuck with the story and might be ready to go to print with a fresh account of Carter's Hollywood misadventures. Maybe this time something better than "Graydon totally puked in Steven Spielberg's hot tub!" will turn up.
Separated at birth: Toothy American Idol champ Fantasia Barrino and Howard Stern Wack Packer Beetlejuice?
The NYDN's Rush & Molloy report that George Clooney is getting his obscenely rich Hollywood buddies to kick in for his dad's run for Congress in Kentucky. Contributors seemingly very interested in Nick Clooney's Kentucky-fried politics include Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito, Kevin Costner, Paul Newman, Adrien Brody, Renee Zellweger, Michael Douglas, and Matt LeBlanc.
MTV and Super Size Me distributor IDP are fighting over MTV's alleged refusal to air a commercial for the documentary, in which director Morgan Spurlock eats nothing but McDonald's for 30 days, three meals a day. IDP claims MTV doesn't want to piss off it's big-money, fast food advertisers. MTV says they merely suggested an edit. (They were probably unhappy that Spurlock is vomiting in the ad.) Which side's publicists do you want to believe? The ones drumming up interest in their somewhat controversial movie, or the ones covering MTV's corporate, ad-revenue lovin' asses?
The Smoking Gun has the final divorce papers from Nicolas Cage's and Lisa Marie Presley's short-lived marriage. Neither party will have to pay support or divide up assets from before the marriage. The official reason cited by Cage is "irreconcilable differences," but we think that Cage quietly invoked California's obscure, "Holy shit, Michael Fucking Jackson had been there!" instant-divorce clause.
The LAT reports that E! Networks chief executive Mindy Herman could be out on the street with a cardboard box as early as today—but that box might be full of cash instead of Anna Nicole Smith swag. Herman may be getting $20 million dollars in severance.
LOGO was just announced two days ago and already some competition is lining up to take a poke. The Advocate reports that Cablevision's Rainbow Media Networks also has a gay-targeted cable channel in the works.
