Archive: February 2009 (201-210 of 218)

Feb 4 2009 01:58 AM ET

Joaquin Phoenix insists his rap act is for real

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Joaquin Phoenix tells the Associated Press that his much-discussed foray into rap music is the real deal. "There’s not a hoax," Phoenix said. "Might I be ridiculous? Might mycareer in music be laughable? Yeah, that’s possible, but that’scertainly not my intention." The Oscar-nominated actor made headlines late last year, when he announced that he was quitting acting to focus on music. Then, when video of him performing in a Las Vegas resort circulated on the Internet in January, speculation swirled that Phoneix’s rap act was a put-on. At the time, two sources told EW.com that Phoenix had concocted an elaborate stunt. But now the entertainer demurs. "I don’t know where that comes from," Phoenix said. "If it comes frompeople that I’ve had a falling out with, that are (ticked) off at me?"

More on Joaquin Phoenix:
Joaquin Phoenix’s rap career: An elaborate hoax?
Joaquin Phoenix’s rap career the subject of debate (and a Casey Affleck-directed documentary)
Joaquin Phoenix wants to be a singer? We’ve got the perfect lead single for him!
Joaquin Phoenix: His most memorable roles

Feb 4 2009 01:44 AM ET

Bob Costas' move to MLB Network spells the end of his HBO gig

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Bob Costas has agreed to join the fledgling MLB Network as a play-by-play announcer and host, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The television personality and noted baseball fan and scholar agreed to a cable-exclusive deal, meaning that he will no longer work for other cable outlets (his nearly three-decade stint on broadcast network NBC, for which he has anchored Olympics coverage, will continue unaffected). Thus, Costas will close shop at HBO, where he has hosted programs like On the Record With Bob Costas and Inside the NFL (before it moved to Showtime), and CNN, where he occasionally sat in for Larry King.

At the MLB Network, Costas will host a new Thursday-night program, MLB Network Studio 42With Bob Costas. His first guest is slated to be Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre.

Feb 3 2009 06:35 PM ET

2009 Langerado Music Festival cancelled

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The seventh annual Langerado Music Festival was cancelled today due to low ticket sales. "Unfortunately, during these difficult economic times, and facing a first year in a new venue, it’s become apparent that we cannot execute a production that lives up to the high standards of our past events," said co-promoter Ethan Schwartz in a press release. The festival, which was scheduled to take place March 6-8 in Miami, had booked performers including Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, Snoop Dogg, Gym Class Heroes, Dashboard Confessional, and Ryan Adams and the Cardinals. Promoters said all tickets would be refunded.

Feb 3 2009 12:35 PM ET

Bonnaroo: Bruce Springsteen, Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails lead lineup

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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the Beastie boys, Nine Inch Nails, David Byrne, Wilco, Al Green, Snoop Dogg, Elvis Costello, and Phish will lead the eclectic lineup for the 2009 Bonnaroo festival, Billboard reports, which will be held June 11-14 in Manchester, Tenn. Bonnaroo will be Springsteen’s only North American festival of theyear. Tickets go on sale Saturday (Feb. 7) via Bonnaroo.com. Fuse will provide live TV coverage, and AT&T Music will once again offer live Webcasts.

Feb 3 2009 11:12 AM ET

'Reaper' returning to air two weeks early

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The second season of The CW’s supernatural comedy-drama Reaper will return to air March 3, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which is two weeks earlier than originally planned. The show, which stars Bret Harrison as a young man contractually obliged to be a bounty hunter for The Devil (Ray Wise), will air at 8 p.m. Tuesdays followed by 90210. The CW will still air the series’ 13 episodes straight, without repeats, as originally planned.

Feb 3 2009 11:07 AM ET

Bill Murray joins 'Get Low'

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Bill Murray and Lucas Black (American Gothic) have joined Sissy Spacek and Robert Duvall in the period thriller Get Low, Variety reports. Aaron Schneider is directing the project, which is based on the true story of Felix "Bush" Breazeale, a Tennessee recluse who planned his own funeral in 1938 while he was still alive and could enjoy it. Murray and Black will play partners at the funeral home. Shooting starts this week.

Feb 3 2009 10:56 AM ET

'Slap Shot' remake taps Dean Parisot to direct

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Dean Parisot (Fun With Dick and Jane) will direct Universal Pictures’ remake of the 1977 hockey comedy Slap Shot, according to Variety. The original starred Paul Newman as a fading player/coach of a minor league hockey team who ramps up interest in his squad by turning his players into a notorious band of brawling thugs.

Feb 3 2009 10:42 AM ET

Aaron Sorkin writing 'The Challenge' for George Clooney's Smoke House

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Aaron Sorkin (Charlie Wilson’s War, The West Wing) will write The Challenge, a courtroom drama, for Warner Bros. and George Clooney’s Smoke House Productions, Variety reports. Clooney may direct as well as play Navy lawyer Charles Swift in the drama about the effort by Swift and Georgetown U. law professor Neal Katyal to ensure a fair trial for Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Hamdan, who’d been held at Guantanamo Bay for five years. Jonathan Mahler’s book, The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight Over Presidential Power, provides the souce material. Sorkin is also working on a movie about the formation of Facebook and is prepping for production on DreamWorks’ The Trial of the Chicago 7, to be directed by Ben Stiller.

Feb 3 2009 10:26 AM ET

Ernest Hemingway biopic in development

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The Gotham Group and producer Kevin Fortuna have optioned film rights to A.E. Hotchner’s best-selling biography Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir, according to The Hollywood Reporter, with plans to take it to the big screen. The book explores the last 14 years of the Nobel Prize-winning author’s life, during which he was close friends with Hotchner, who is now 88. Hotchner also wrote the 1962 movie Hemingway’s Adventures of a YoungMan, based on the author’s stories.

Feb 3 2009 03:01 AM ET

SAG's Alan Rosenberg attempts to reinstate ousted executive director

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More turmoil over at the Screen Actors Guild: A meeting that was supposed to occur Feb. 3 between the union reps and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has been postponed in light of a legal maneuver by SAG President Alan Rosenberg on Monday. Together with his vice president Anne-Marie Johnson, the two reportedly submitted a legal document to SAG that demonstrates their intent to file a lawsuit to reverse the firing of Doug Allen, the union’s former national executive director and chief negotiator. Rosenberg apparently intends to file a lawsuit as soon as Tuesday.

A SAG statement acknowledged receipt of Rosenberg’s intent to file a complaint. Other than to confirm the cancellation of the meeting with AMPTP, the union had no further comment.

On Jan. 26, the moderates on SAG’s national board managed to boot Allen, replace him with two people, and obliterate the negotiating committee. Rosenberg responded with an angry letter posted on the union’s website saying that he and Allen deserved the credit for any gains the new management team achieved in upcoming talks with the AMPTP. "Make no mistake, if this should occur, if there is any gain made, or if we are ultimately able to resist one of the massive roll backs that has been demanded, it will not be due to the skill of this new ‘negotiating team," Rosenberg wrote.

The actors have been working without a contract since June.

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