So You Can Think You Can Dance runner-up Stephen “Twitch” Boss has joined Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He will play Taz, the film’s antagonist. The sequel starts shooting next week in Atlanta.
So You Can Think You Can Dance runner-up Stephen “Twitch” Boss has joined Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He will play Taz, the film’s antagonist. The sequel starts shooting next week in Atlanta.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jessica Biel will star in and produce F—ing Engaged, a comedy about a couple who make a pact to have sex every day before their wedding so they don’t become boring. Julia Brownell wrote the original screenplay.
Oliver Platt (Huff) has reportedly joined the cast of Showtime’s dark comedy pilot The C Word, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Platt will play the husband of Cathy (Laura Linney), a suburban mother who has discovered that she has terminal cancer. Gabourey Sidibe, who can be seen in the upcoming Oscar-buzz film Precious, has also been cast in the show’s pilot episode, a Showtime rep confirmed to EW. Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) is directing the pilot.
Three more celebrities have been added to the list of victims of a Hollywood burglary ring that targeted the homes of such stars as Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Orlando Bloom. According to Officer Brett Goodkin of the LAPD, Megan Fox, Ashley Tisdale, and Brian Austin Green were also burglarized earlier this year by the mostly teenage thieves, all but one of whom have been captured and are facing charges. “They targeted celebrities and mostly stole high-end designer clothing, accessories, jewelry, and electronics,” Goodkin tells EW. They also stole a handgun from Green, although Goodkin says that the actor was unaware that the gun had been missing until it was retrieved from a suspect’s home. Green’s manager could not be reached for comment, and Fox’s and Tisdale’s publicists had no comment on the matter.
Some folks are upset with DirecTV’s new ad campaign featuring David Spade riffing with the late Chris Farley–in the commercial, the two comics are forced to entertain themselves because they don’t have DirecTV–but it’s all in good fun, according to an official statement released by Kevin Farley, Chris’ brother. “We as a family believe the DirecTV commercial is a celebration of Chris. It shows him doing what he loved to do most, making people laugh.” In the past, DirecTV has used other dead celebrities to sell its product–last year there was a controversy over an ad featuring a clip of Heather O’Rourke in Poltergeist. That actress died in 1988, at age 12.
Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) will be making her stage debut as Helen Keller in a 50th anniversary revival of The Miracle Worker, with Alison Pill (The Lieutenant of Inishmore) costarring as Annie Sullivan, according to a statement from producer David Richenthal. The iconic play about a blind and deaf girl and the teacher who taught her to communicate with the world–played in the original production by Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft–is slated to open in March 2010 at Circle in the Square Theater.
The Catholic League, led by president Bill Donohue, is on the attack after last Sunday’s episode of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm featured Larry David’s character accidentally spritzing a painting of Jesus hanging in a bathroom with a drop of urine as he relieved himself. In a statement, titled “Urinating on Jesus,” Donohue says, “At one point in the show, David goes to the bathroom in a Catholic home and splatters urine on a picture of Jesus; he doesn’t clean it off. Then a Catholic woman goes to the bathroom, sees the picture and concludes that Jesus is crying. She then summons her equally stupid mother and the two of them fall to their knees in prayer. When David and Jerry Seinfeld (playing himself) are asked if they ever experienced a miracle, David answers, ‘every erection is a miracle.’ That’s what passes for creativity these days. Was Larry David always this crude? Would he think it comedic if someone urinated on a picture of his mother?”
David, whose character did appear to be mortified by his predicament, has yet to return EW’s request for comment, but HBO has issued the followed statement: “Anyone who follows Curb Your Enthusiasm knows that the show is full of parody and satire. Larry David makes fun of everyone, most especially himself. The humor is always playful and certainly never malicious.” The network would not reveal how many emails Chairman and CEO Bill Nelson has received since Donohue shared his email address at the end of his statement, but HBO does tell EW that most of the emails followed some sort of form letter and that the senders seemed not to have seen the episode themselves.
Susan Fani, director of communications for the Catholic League, would not quantify the number of calls and emails its New York-based office has received about the episode, but says the phone has been ringing all day: “Our members are opposed to it. There’s no one calling to support it, let’s put it that way.” Donohue is set to appear on Fox News’ Fox and Friends, and The Opie & Anthony Show, on Thursday.
The clip in question follows (warning, shows urination scenes):
This Is It, the film tribute to Michael Jackson’s career and legacy, earned $2.2 million in sales from Tuesday night’s shows in the U.S. and Canada, according to the LA Times. Sony executives have said that they believe the biggest payoff from their $60 million effort will come from overseas sales. Though international numbers aren’t yet available, the studio predicts the film will earn twice as much abroad as it will domestically.
Photo: Kevin Mazur
Hulk Hogan, the blond muscle-man who helped make professional wrestling mainstream entertainment, is returning to the ring. According to The Hollywood’s Reporter Live Feed blog, the 56-year-old is coming out of retirement to join Spike TV’s TNA Wrestling (Total Nonstop Action), an aspiring rival to Vince McMahon’s WWE.
The Disney Channel has ordered a pilot for a musical-comedy series called Dance Dance Chicago. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney has assigned veteran producer Chris Thompson (Bosom Buddies) to craft the story about two back-up dancers on a hit music-television show.