At the afterparty for his latest film, Josh Hartnett managed to crack a slight smile as he saw Kirsten Dunst tucked away in a corner. Hartnett slowly lumbered across the room and over to an increasingly uncomfortable Dunst. Hartnett expressed his gratitude to Dunst for coming out to the party and in a very faint whisper said that it meant a lot to him. Dunst nodded as she looked for an escape from the conversation. Lucky for Dunst, her Elizabethtown co-star Susan Sarandon walked by at that exact moment. Dunst grabbed Sarandon by the shoulder and began to talk a mile a minute about what happened with the 2005 Cameron Crowe film.

The Earth is easing back on to its axis today after a full month of panic that Jon Favreau might skip out on directing Iron Man 2 — not that he threatened to, mind you, though all it took was one candid MySpace entry to fertilize fanboy concern that money, ego, release-date controversies or all of the above might conspire to shatter the fragile bond between the director and the cheap-ass overlords at Marvel.

Bad news for Real World cast member-turned Congressional candidate (D-Pop Culture) Kevin Powell: Dave Chappelle totally spaced out on Powell's fundraiser in Brooklyn last night, costing him the crucial Chappelle-fan vote! The comedian was supposed to headline the fundraising show, but never appeared, possibly because he is crazy. Then Chris Rock refused to go on too, in solidarity! And it only got worse for Powell: a drunk journalist, for chrissake, tried to grab the mic and steal the show [UPDATE: And there's a video!]:

· If you didn't happen to catch Victoria—one part Cats, one part JonBenét Ramsey, and one part boneless chicken breast—on America's Got Talent, now's your chance. Just give this girl the trophy (or whatever it is they give on that show) already! [AGT]
· The lifeless carcass of Bravo's Project Runway was discovered inside a giant roll of chenille at the back of Mood Fabrics. [Gawker]
· Wow! Another original 90210 cast member was able to shuffle things around to accommodate an appearance on the new version. This must be one special spin-off. [Us]
· Pam Anderson pledges "no stripping" on her three-day stint as Australian Celebrity Big Brother's "uber special VIP guest." No matter how hard they ask. Unless they get her drunk. Or ask. [Sun]
· We're happy to inform you that http://rim.jobs is totally safe for work. [http://rim.jobs]

For all the veins of Dark Knight interest Warner Bros. has opened among stampeding fanboys, late-night talk-show hosts and, er, Michael Bay, at the end of the day nothing succeeds like success. To wit: When your showtimes — midnight to 6 a.m. in some markets — become national news, you can probably just put the campaign on cruise-control and move on to the next film:

That sand-diving, levitating make-out partner Sarah Larson has gone ahead and surprised us again. Ever since those racy photos from her pre-George days pleasantly shocked us a bit, we could always count on the Vegas hostess to say or do something not so intelligent and turn our frowns upside down. From showering Clooney’s home with scented candles to pouting over defamatory voice messages on George’s answering machine, Larson never failed to please. And the bobble-headed minx has done it again. When asked by Hello! what exactly she adored about George, she lists some yawn-worthy traits like humor(!), kindness(!), and famewhore enabling(!), but the one thing Sarah says she loved most about the guy who spent most of their relationship on crutches? His “dance moves.” Of course. Because judging by these photos of Clooney busting a move, those “interpretive” lessons he took a few years ago really paid off.

Well, she's not in a bikini (awwww), but it is Molly McAleer (yayyyyy!), Defamer's resident videographer and ToDoLogist, back with another fascinating chapter from her ongoing, serialized memoir, Musings of an Asian Sex Worker. In today's gripping installment, our heroine battles her greatest foe yet—Clown on a Bike Guy—with the help of her crime- and hangover-fighting companion, Alexis Hyde. Click or die.

Today is a special Gay Day! No, they didn’t pass another fabulous law for the gheys, it’s the first night of 26th annual film fest, Outfest. The 13-day blast of gay film kicks off tonight with Breakfast with Scot, featuring Tom Cavanagh (Ed) and Ben Shenkman (Angels In America) at the Orpheum Theatre. We talked to Kirsten Schaffer, the interim executive director about her new favorite flicks, and the process of whittling all those submissions down to a manageable “225 movies from 25 countries and nine venues for over 13 days, and we expect over 50,000 attendees,” as she put it in her understated way. And also we find out how exactly a South Park movie makes the cut in a gay fest. (Hint: It’s a sing-a-long. All together now: “Uncle Fucker!”)

As far as circles of hell go, we've already established you can't really do much worse than the Television Critics Association semi-annual press tours — the gaseous summer version of which is feeding the palms in Beverly Hills as we speak. But it's not just the bloggers and bitter ideologues who have ruined the bed-in between networks, stars and the writers who love them (until the expense account runs out, anyway); we're learning more today about why the TCA tour may have bottomed out earlier than predicted, featuring an opening cavalcade of virtually uncoverable has-beens and hypocrites who don't bode well for the future of, well, anything. From the WaPo:

We don't mean to bite our thumbs at the Shakespeare's entire body of work, but let's face facts: some of The Bard's plays can be rather staid and boring (even in the hands of Baz Luhrman). But the Shakespeare Festival/LA has the antidote to our short attention spans and disinterest in anything ultra-historical. Last year they staged A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a jazzy '20s setting. This year, they go very L.A. for Taming of the Shrew. For starters, they put the play's protagonists, the lovers Kate and Petruchio, in a car. On a roadtrip.

As Tom Cruise loves to remind us on his website, he's been prancing around Hollywood for 25 years, playing all kinds of roles we vaguely remember. But who knew all that hard work had been mere preparation for his landmark role in a one-man Village People biopic? In an apparent nod to American history, the patriotic Cruise temporarily abandoned hope for a truce between his army of Xenuphobes and Germany, choosing to split the difference and celebrate this wonderful country L. Ron Hubbard called home. In between the COS founder’s time traveling vacations to ancient Rome and DeLorean rides to the future, that is. And now that Cruise has donned a cowboy hat, tight jeans, and a fitted tee, he’s officially paid homage to each bandmate from that gayer-than-gay feel-good group of song-and-dance men who would surely welcome Cruise into a singalong of “It’s Raining Men.” So among Tom’s many characterizations of the Navy Boy, Earnest Construction Worker, Bad Boy Officer and, of course, Leatherman, which Village Person’s heels shoes does Tom fill out best?

In preparations for a potential SAG strike, popular actress Megan Fox has begun to explore other avenues of interest. For instance, she thought she might be able to start her own business. Fox said, "So many people have told me that I remind them of that girl from high school that they either couldn't get a date with or that I'm, like, that girl who was really mean to them in English class. You know, the one with all of jokes that left scars that didn't heal until well after college. Maybe even graduate school. So, I thought why not help people get on with their life?" Fox's initial plan for the business would involve recreating those traumatic moments, but with positive outcomes the second time around including carefully constructed comebacks and dinner dates at a local Applebees.

There's troubling news out of Pasadena today as we're hearing Jennifer Lopez's Latin eatery Madre's is "closed until further notice." The 6-year old restaurant shuttered July 1 with little more heads-up than a sign in the window; the appliances have not yet been liquidated in exchange for a month's supply of J-Lo's preferred organic twin formula, as far as we know, so perhaps the staff just needs a summer's rest from bad tomatoes and/or Stephen Hawking's infamous, mechanized flirtations. But don't fret! Recent developments ensure easy stargazing at the Newsroom Cafe these days, and in any case, we can sympathize with La Lopez; restaurants are a tough go, and Lord knows she's got enough damn people to feed at home these days. [TMZ, Photo Credit: Getty Images]

As we round the corner onto the 17th month of weist-loss guru Angelina Jolie's seemingly interminable pregnancy (we're picturing the twins refusing to come out until the winner of their marathon, inter-uterus Boggle tournament is finally determined), the AP brings us this photo taken outside the Lenval Hospital in Nice, where Jolie is currently checked in under the assumed name of "J. Aniston." In it, a hospital worker can be clearly seen applying some kind of top-secret, high-tech material, developed by scientists at France's struggling space program, that effectively prevents any photographers from capturing any member of the Jolie-Pitt clan on film. (Amazingly, anyone else who happens to be in the room develops just fine, resulting in eerie shots of a staff of nurses and doctors fussing over empty space.)

Silly Kirsten Dunst. Temporarily living outside of her natural celeb-friendly West coast habitat where any late-night messiness is handily kept on the DL by celebrity-catering club warlords, the recently rehabbed star is currently staying in New York while filming All Good Things. And the many sightings sent in by helpful Manhattanites haven’t exactly painted Dunst as the soberific poster child perfected of late by Miss Lindsay Lohan. The NY Post chimes in today reporting that Dunst continued her boy-crazy habits of yore by making out with the DJ at the celeb-infested Beatrice Inn two nights ago. But a Defamer tipster had the pleasure of spotting Kirsten last night at the same bar, and rather than cozying up to the same DJ, the actress spent the entire night flirting, following, and eventually frisking another Beatrice regular: that talented thespian, Josh Hartnett. Details on what our tipster witnessed, and which Olsen twin watched the romance blossom from afar, after the jump.

ABC has a big, dumb hit on its hands with Wipeout, which, despite a 5% drop from its premiere, finished second once again this week behind America's Got Talent. Alas, the network's would-be monopoly on lowest-common-denominator horseshit is threatened today as word gets around that ABC might be hewing a little too close to Spike TV's own padded-obstacle-course mash-up MXC. Spike is apparently taking the lift in stride, but MXC's co-creator has his own theories; after all, a rip-off would be one thing — the nets are built on them these days.

We realize it's challenging to keep up with this whole A-Rod/ Madonna/ affair/ divorce/ something-about-Lenny Kravitz business, a convoluted celebrity love-polygon which we wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn also involved Gary Coleman, Eliot Spitzer, and a Coors Light Twin. Still, you wouldn't want to be caught at some swanky dinner party filled with effete liberal elites and not have your talking points straight. Here's a round-up of the latest:
· A personal trainer present at the exact moment Kravitz learned he was embroiled in the primordial tabloid ooze said he "looked like he was going to throw up." The link between he, Madonna, and A-Rod is manager Guy Oseary, who told Kravitz he was going to "pimp out" the singer and Yankee. Whatever that means, Kravitz disapproved of it, and fired the manager a couple weeks later. He claims to have never had an affair with Cynthia Rodriguez; this was just a retaliatory smear campaign. [NY Post]

In an attempt to scare away an swarm of photographers surrounding U2 front man Bono's French home, respected actor Robert De Niro recited some of his more intimidating and memorable film lines. Unfortunately for De Niro and Bono's houseguests, the scary line readings only garnered laughs from the French photographers, as well as wishes/desires for De Niro to do another comedy. De Niro threw his hands up in the air and suggested that if they play some of Bono's music that might make the photogs leave.

Could 2008 be the year that Hollywood has waited for so long, when that "indestructible cockroach" of independent movies-New York's Harvey Weinstein-finally runs out of luck? Forget about disappointing revenues from movies such as Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse; one should be looking at the plight of a boring home video distributor which was supposed to be the Weinsteins' salvation.

Embattled pet-owner Dane Cook is finally being made to answer for his Pinscher-loaf sins, as his eviction trial for failing to pick up after his miniature canine companion Beast has just completed the jury selection process. (See him attacked by pragmatic paparazzi—"C'mon, Dane. It's just dog crap!"—above.) Among the questions asked by his counsel of potential candidates: