Roger Ebert @ MindSay 
Love him or hate him, you have to admire Roger Ebert's determination and spirit. Ebert was first diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2002, then the next year cancer of the salivary gland which spread to his jaw bone. Numerous surgeries and treatments later, he is left with a reconstructued jaw and a tracheotomoy which prevents him from speaking. Still, he refuses to let it stop him from living his life, and he refuses to care what the gossip pages say about his drastically altered appearance. Granted, he was no Brad Pitt to begin with, but you have to admire the man's attitude. I give him two thumbs up!
Film critic Roger Ebert received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame June 23. Congrats and yay! Someone truly more deserving than Seacrest. Annette Bening, Steve Martin, Ray Romano and Charlize Theron are among the stars who will receive stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006.
German film critics are protesting Paramount for implementing a worldwide embargo preventing reviewers from publishing their critiques of Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds until the film's global release date June 29. The critics called the embargo a "violation of basic constitutional rights." Is the movie that bad?! Tom Cruise hosted a special screening of the War of the Worlds for hundreds of fans in Los Angeles June 20. Laurence Fishburne and Philip Seymour Hoffman are joining Cruise and Keri Russell for writer-director J.J. Abrams' upcoming Mission: Impossible 3. Two good additions.
Frankly, my dear, I do give a damn: The line "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" from Gone With the Wind was named the American Film Institute's (AFI) number one quote on its "100 Years... 100 Quotes" list and special, which aired June 21 on CBS. Casablanca had the most entries at six, with "Here's looking at you, kid" at number five, the highest-ranked one from that particular movie.
Paramount Pictures and Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's Plan B production company have entered a first-look agreement that gives Paramount an exclusive first bid at producing projects developed by Plan B over the next three years. Paramount Pictures Chairman and CEO Brad Grey is the third founding member of Plan B. Warner Bros' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Plan B's first endeavor, hits theaters July 15.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) invited 112 members of the film industry to become members. Members of AMPAS vote on who should be nominated for and win Oscars. Gael Garcia Bernal, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sophie Okonedo, Clive Owen, Charlotte Rampling, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgard, Imelda Staunton and Ziyi Zhang are the foreign actors that got in. American actors Thomas Haden Church, Jennifer Coolidge, Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Paul Giamatti and Mykelti Williamson were extended invitations as well. Five directors got in: Alejandro Amenabar, Marc Forster, Oliver Hirschbiegel, Andy Tennant and Joel Zwick. Paramount CEO Brad Grey, Spider-Man producer Avi Arad, Robert Rodriguez's producer-wife Elizabeth Avellan, Crash creator Paul Haggis, The Motorcycle Diaries writer Jose Rivera and School of Rock writer and co-star Mike White were also invited to join AMPAS. On June 22, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted against granting a consortium of stunt performers their request for an Oscar in their field. Oscar-winning Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar received a Bunuel's Razor Award for the Best Spanish Film of 2004 for his latest hit, Bad Education. Again, congrats and yay!
The Los Angeles trial for the case of a photographer accused of trying to extort money from Cameron Diaz via racy photos of her taken before she was famous started June 23. Diaz's Charlie's Angels co-star Lucy Liu will star opposite Cedric the Entertainer in Les Mayfield's action comedy The Cleaner. Liu plays an FBI agent posing as a waitress to Cedric's amnesiac janitor who thinks he's an undercover agent. Liu will also executive produce and star in the independent thriller Devil to Pay. Diaz's pop star boyfriend Justin Timberlake is in talks to join Christina Ricci and Samuel L. Jackson in the film Black Snake Moan. Ricci and Jackson are good, but I don't know about Timberlake - or the title for that matter.
Fox and Marvel Enterprises are suing Sony and Revolution Studios over Sony's new comic book satire Zoom, starring Tim Allen, which will hit theaters around the same time as Fox's X3. Fox and Marvel claim that Zoom rips off elements of the X-Men.
An offer not to be refused: Marlon Brando's personal effects, including his driver's licenses and a notated script for The Godfather, are going up for auction at Christie's June 30 in a sale expected to fetch more than $1 million.
O star Mekhi Phifer will star in and make his directorial debut on Sony's indie comedy Easier, Softer Way, which also stars Maura Tierney, Scott Grimes, John C. McGinley, Ronnie Warner, Terry Crews and Mo Collins. Easier follows two hapless pot heads involved in a scheme to rip off a mysterious character called Mr. Big after the duo sours on rehab. Something tells me this has nothing to do with Sex and the City's Chris Noth.
AMC Theaters and Loews Cineplex Entertainment announced June 21 that they will merge. I only have one question: Loews does the Ultimate Film Fanatic competition, so does that mean that the AMC theaters, which we have in St. Louis, will have the competition too?!
The producers of Ray are developing a biopic on legendary comic Rodney Dangerfield, who passed away last year, based in part on his memoir It's Not Easy Being Me.
James Earl Jones, who is best known for voicing the menacing Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies is suffering from pneumonia. May the force be with him.
Sarah Michelle Gellar will star in the film adaptation of the Electronic Arts videogame American McGee's Alice, a twisted take on Alice in Wonderland in which Alice has grown up to become a disturbed young woman. I would be too after all that sh*t.
A Los Angeles prosecutor told a judge June 22 that actor Tom Sizemore violated his probation by trying to fake a drug test, not reporting to his probation officer, missing counseling sessions and not advising authorities of his new address. The judge may send Sizemore back to jail when the hearing resumes. Dude, you're screwed.
Zack Sinclair, the man convicted of stalking Mel Gibson, was sentenced to three years in state prison June 22. Lucyna Turyk-Wawrynowicz, a housekeeper who worked for Manhattan's rich and famous, has been charged with stealing from clients including Candice Bergen and Robert DeNiro's wife.
-Catherine Krummey, MovieCat Cinema
Enduring Love's Daniel Craig, who had been a leading contender in the race to be the next James Bond, officially announced that he will not play the martini-loving British spy. Last week, rumors buzzed that Sin City's Clive Owen was in negotiations for a two-picture Bond deal for $40 million. However, Owen has signed on to star in director Alfonso Cuaron's sci-fi flick Children of Men, which takes place the future where a former radical (Owen) must protect the first pregnant woman on earth in almost 20 years. I guess Owen's not Casino Royale's Bond then. On April 26, the New York Post reported that Judi Dench, a.ka. M, said that Pierce Brosnan will play Bond for the fifth time in Royale, despite previous reports to the contrary. How excited am I? There are no words. "I have no words!"
President Bush signed legislation aimed at helping parents keep their children from seeing sex scenes, violence and foul language in movie DVDs April 27. The bill gives legal protections to the fledgling filtering technology that helps parents automatically skip or mute sections of commercial movie DVDs. F***ing ridiculous is what I have to say. Read more about this below in "Censoring Hollywood, One Filter at a Time?"
Universal Pictures is teaming with producer-director Michael Bay (Bad Boys) to remake the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock horror classic The Birds. Why the hell are they even touching one of the best horror movies ever made?! And if they had to do it, surely they could find someone better than the guy who brought us Bad Boys II!
Actress and mother-of-twins Julia Roberts graces the cover of People's "50 Most Beautiful People" issue for a record third time. According to an online poll conducted by the magazine, tabloid fodder Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were named the most beautiful woman and man. The magazine hit newsstands April 29.
Us Weekly reports that Matt Damon is following in pal Ben Affleck's footsteps, as he has become engaged to Florida-based bartender Luciana Barroso. Last week, People reported Affleck's engagement to Daredevil co-star Jennifer Garner. A double wedding for the Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting duo? Eh... maybe not.
Reps for TV's Dawson's Creek star Katie Holmes, 26, and Tom Cruise, 42, have confirmed the two have been dating for a few weeks. The duo was photographed in Rome this week, where Cruise is being honored with a lifetime achievement award at the David di Donatello Awards. This is the second random Dawson's Creek hook-up in a short period of time, as last week it was reported that Michelle Williams (Jen) is having a baby with Heath Ledger. Holmes' ex-fiance, American Pie's Chris Klein, pled guilty to once count of DUI stemming from a February traffic stop in San Diego. He was sentenced to five years' probation, 150 hours of community service, 90-day license suspension and an $1,800 fine. Ouch. Cruise's ex, Penelope Cruz, is reteaming with her All About My Mother director Pedro Almodovar for Volver (to return), a comedy involving a grandmother, a mother and a daughter who journey from the south of Spain to Madrid. Carmen Maura, who starred in Almodovar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, co-stars.
Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame June 23. Awesome!
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