Tom Sizemore @ MindSay 
( Read this article from ESPN by Tim Kurkjian )
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Another day, another bad report card for trouble-magnet Tom Sizemore.
Prosecutors claim the Black Hawk Down actor violated his probation for the second time in just five months, after traces of amphetamines were found during a court-ordered urine test.
Lawyers for Sizemore, 44, claim the test results were tainted due to the prescribed medication selegiline, a drug commonly used to treat Parkinson's disease, and not the result of their client falling back into old habits.
"This is a perfectly harmless agent," Dr. Joseph Haraszti, Sizemore's physician, said following Friday's hearing, per City News Service. "This helps with depression...and doesn't have the same biologic effect of euphoria and everything else[associated with illegal drugs]."
Sizemore attorney Michael Rovell also argued that the inhaler the actor uses to treat his asthma could produce a positive result on the drug test.
Deputy District Attorney Sean Carney doesn't buy either argument, claiming the actor has made "multiple attempts to deceive the court" in prior hearings.
Regardless, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge T.K. Herman opted not to send the actor back to jail immediately Friday. Instead, he requested that the defense provide more information about the prescription medication, and any possible alternative treatments that wouldn't affect a drug test, at a Jan. 13 hearing.
At that time, Herman will rule on whether or not Sizemore has violated his probation and determine whether or not his probation should be revoked, which could send Sizemore to the slammer.
Herman was assigned to the case after the judge who previously handled Sizemore's case, Paula Mabrey, was transferred to another courthouse.
Following the hearing, Haraszti praised Sizemore for "doing beautifully" in his treatment.
Should the judge find Sizemore guilty of violating his probation, it will be the second time this year.
The actor's probation was previously revoked in July, after admitting to a series of violations, most memorably his use of a Whizzinator to fake negative results during a urine test.
Sizemore's probation was reinstated in October, however, after Mabrey congratulated the actor for his good behavior and adherence to being treated at a live-in rehab center.
But Mabrey also warned Sizemore that he could face up to 16 months in prison should another violation occur.
Sizemore is currently free on bail pending appeal on another trial in which he faces charges of misdemeanor domestic violence, harassment, vandalism, and making threats against former girlfriend and notorious Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.
Last month, it came to light that a photo of a bruised Fleiss--a key piece of evidence in his trial--may have been fabricated.
Meanwhile, there might be some good news on Sizemore's horizon.
The actor has been shopping around a no-holds-barred reality series revolving around his life, tentatively titled Super Sizemore, with a handful of networks said to be interested.
-- by Gina Serpe
Tom Hanks will star in Universal's Charlie Wilson's War as a rogue Texas congressman who oversaw a successful CIA covert operation in Afghanistan that heped bring down the Iron Curtain. Hanks' Playtone Productions will also be teaming with Warner Bros. for the CGI animation flick The Ant Bully, which will hit theaters on August 4, 2006.
Batman Begins' Christian Bale and Sahara's Steve Zahn are teaming up for Werner Herzog's independent action-drama Rescue Dawn, which is based on the German filmmaker's 1977 acclaimed documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Dawn tells the real-life story of U.S. fighter pilot Dieter Dengler (Bale), a German-American shot down and captured in Laos during the Vietnam War. Disney confirmed July 17 at the San Diego Comic-Con that Bale's Batman co-star Liam Neeson will provide the voice for Aslan the Lion for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, which hits theaters December 9.
Christina Ricci will star in Type-A Films and Stone Village Pictures' modern-day fable Penelope. Ricci plays the titular character, a woman under a curse who tries to end a lifelong string of bad luck. Reese Witherspoon, who started Type-A, will also have a supporting role.
Box office numbers were up for the second weekend in a row, July 15 to 17, thanks to the draw of new releases Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Wedding Crashers. Additional support from the previous week's slump-stopper, Fantastic Four, also helped. Matt Dillon is joining Kate Hudson and Crashers star Owen Wilson for Universal's comedy You, Me and Dupree. The movie tells the story of a newlywed couple (Dillon & Hudson) whose relationship problems boil over when the groom's unemployed best man, Dupree (Wilson), moves in and seems to have no intention of leaving.
Mel Gibson is teaming with Disney to distribute his next film, Apocalypto, which he wrote and will direct. The film is set in an ancient civilization 3,000 years ago, and the film's title is a Greek term which means "an unveiling" or "new beginning."
The Weinstein Co. is teaming with Warner Bros. to distribute the first all-CGI-animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, which will be released in 2007. Awesome!
Universal and Imagine Entertainment are teaming up for an untitled heist comedy to be directed by Rush Hour's Brett Ratner and starring Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock. The movie is about a couple of blue-collar guys who aspire to pull off the perfect heist. Murphy came up with the idea and has expressed a desire to work with Rock.
The life of Notorious B.I.G. is being made into a feature film with a script written by journalist Cheo Hodari Coker, the last person to interview the rapper before his untimely death. The biopic, produced by Fox Searchlight, will be directed by Training Day's Antoine Fuqua.
Sin City's Rosario Dawson will star in and produce the psychological thriller Descent. Dawson plays Maya, a college student who turns into a vengeful seductress after a shocking act of violence.
Memento's Guy Pearce and Constantine's Rachel Weisz will star in the Houdini drama Death Defying Acts. Based on true events during escape artist Harry Houdini's 1926 tour of Britain, the film follows his relationship with a woman he encounters in Scotland.
An Officer and a Gentleman's Louis Gosset Jr. will star as a Miami police detective battling drug traffickers in the film Caribbean Manhunt.
Melissa Gilbert has made the decision to not run for a third term as President of the Screen Actors Guild because she wants to spend more time with her family.
Selena producer Moctesuma Esparza is building a chain of movie theaters called Maya Cinemas that aims to serve the 41 million Latinos living in the United States. The first theater opens July 29 in Salinas, California.
Jude Law has issued a public apology to fiancee and Alfie co-star Sienna Miller, admitting that he has been having an affair with Daisy Wright, the nanny of one of his kids. "I want to publicly apologize to Sienna and our respective families for the pain that I have caused," Law said in a statement released to the British Press Association.
Tom Cruise's couch-hopping antics on Oprah has topped TV Guide's poll to determine the Wildest Celebrity Meltdown. Runners-up include Michael Jackson, Courtney Love, Farrah Fawcett and Mariah Carey.
Salma Hayek appeared at a Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Violence Against Women Act July 19 in Washington D.C. to speak about the importance of lending support to battered women.
Filmmaker David Lynch has announced that he'd like to raise $7 million to launch the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, a massive transcendental meditation program. The program would begin in the United States and later spread worldwide, teaching school kids stress-reducing techniques which he believes will go a long way toward achieving world peace.
Roman Polanski has won his libel suit against Vanity Fair, which published a 2002 article claiming he attempted to seduce a woman en route to wife Sharon Tate's funeral. The Pianist director was awarded about $87,000 in damages. Polanski viewed the proceedings via video link from his Paris hotel room in order to avoid extradition to the United States.
A Los Angeles judge issued a restraining order July 19 against a woman who is allegedly trying to distribute a sex tape involving Colin Farrell. The actor filed suit July 18 seeking to block the sale of a 15-minute sex tape featuring the actor and the woman, former Playboy playmate Nicole Narain. A hearing has been scheduled for August 10.
A hearing has been scheduled for Freddie Prinze Jr.'s lawsuit against his former manager, Ric Beddingfield, whom he alleges gave bad business advice, costing more than $700,000.
Tom Sizemore admitted to using a prosthetic device in an attempt to fake a May 25 drug test in an L.A. court July 22. A judge ordered the actor to be confined at a Pasadena rehab facility pending a September 15 court hearing.
James Doohan, who played Scotty the engineer in the Star Trek TV series and movies, died July 20. He was 85. His final request was that his ashes are scattered in space. "Beam me up, Scotty."
Quote of the Week: "American popular culture is my culture, and I don't just live in it; I love it madly, and writing about it seems as natural - and as necessary - as breathing." -Stephen King, in his column "The Pop of King" in the July 29 issue of Entertainment Weekly
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Fox's Fantastic Four, which has been given mixed reviews, drew in the American public enough for the weekend of July 8 through 10 to end the 19-week slump in the box office. The Associated Press reports that the top 12 films took in an estimated $139.5 million, up 1.2 percent from the same weekend in 2004. Now that's some truly fantastic news. I hope it will be for more than one week.
Jack Black is reteaming with School of Rock writer Mike White for Paramount's Nacho Libre, directed by Napoleon Dynamite's Jared Hess. Black will play a Mexican priest who secretly moonlights as a masked wrestler in order to save an orphanage from closure. Paramount and DreamWorks also made a joint announcement July 13 that the live-action Transformers movie will hit the big screen on July 4, 2007.
Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson are teaming up for Universal's comedy You, Me and Dupree. Wilson plays best man Randy Dupree, who stays on as a houseguest with newlyweds Carl and Molly, eventually wearing out his welcome. Wilson will also star in Paramount's remake of the 1947 classic film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty for director Mark Waters. The story follows the title character, a dreamer whose vivid imagination allows him to escape from his ordinary life. The story of the remake will be closer to the 1939 James Thurber story than the 1947 movie. Kill Bill's Uma Thurman and The Royal Tenenbaums' Luke Wilson (Owen's brother) are teaming up for director Ivan Reitman's romantic comedy Super Ex. Thurman will play a superhero who falls for a regular guy (Wilson). When he dumps her, she uses her powers to turn his life into a nightmare.
Henry Winkler will play Adam Sandler's father in Sony and Revolution's comedy Click, about a remote that enables Sandler to fast-forward and rewind to different parts of his life. Winkler previously appeared as the coach in the Sandler hit The Waterboy. Sandler's Punch-Drunk Love co-star Emily Watson has signed on for the family adventure film Crusade for director Ben Sombogaart. Crusade is based on Thea Beckman's bestselling novel Crusade in Jeans.
Lions Gate Films has signed a multipicture deal with S.W.A.T. co-star LL Cool J. One of the films is an urban retelling of Fatal Attraction. Ewan McGregor and original Fatal Attraction star Glenn Close are teaming up for a musical remake of the Hollywood classic Sunset Blvd. McGregor plays an out-of-work screenwriter whose path crosses with fading silent film star Norma Desmond (Close).
Sarah Jessica Parker will star in and produce a big-screen adaptation of Rebecca Gilman's play Spinning Into Butter. Parker plays a college dean who's forced to face her feelings about race when a hate crime shakes things up on campus.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' Blake Lively and Herbie: Fully Loaded's Justin Long will co-star in Universal's comedy Accepted, which centers on a high school senior (Long) who finds a way to avoid the pressure to attend college. Lively plays Long's friend, whom he has a secret crush on.
American Beauty co-star Chris Cooper has signed on to star in Fortress Entertainment's drama The Road Back. The film follows a man dealing with the breakdown of his marriage and an increasingly icy family relationship in the wake of the suicide of his daughter, an Iraq war veteran. Sounds good and powerful.
In America filmmaker Jim Sheridan's next project will be the Irish mafia film Emerald City, a Radar Pictures and Relevant Entertainment co-production. City, based on a true story, is a look into the world of Irish organized crime in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City.
Good Will Hunting director Gus Van Sant has announced that his next project will be an adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's novel The Time Traveler's Wife. Wife is loosely based on Homer's Odyssey and centers on a woman and a man with a time-traveling gene that enables him to jump to different times in her life.
The three Lord of the Rings movies topped Amazon.com's list of their all-time bestselling DVDs. In honor of the company's 10th anniversary, never-before-seen footage from the trilogy was screened in a webcast July 16. Gwyneth Paltrow and Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom will make cameo appearances and Brittany Murphy, Matthew Rhys, Catherine Tate and Santiago Cabrera will star in the romantic comedy Love and Other Disasters. The story revolves around a group of friends in London who discover sometimes love isn't like the movies. Proof (which stars Paltrow), In Her Shoes and the new Pride and Prejudice are among the films on the slate of this year's Toronto International Film Festival, which runs September 8-17. The Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, which stars The Village's Joaquin Phoenix as the legendary "Man in Black," will also have its world premiere at the festival. Line hits theaters on November 18.
Opening arguments began July 13 in the criminal trial of a photographer who allegedly tried to sell topless photos of Cameron Diaz taken before she was famous.
A federal judge dismissed a $20 million libel and defamation lawsuit July 14 filed against filmmaker Michael Moore by the brother of Oklahoma bombing conspirator Terry Nichols.
An L.A. judge threatened to have actor Tom Sizemore arrested if he fails to show up for his next hearing on July 22, which addresses whether or not he violated his probation in his drug case.
Sandra Bullock and TV's Monster Garage mastermind Jesse James were married in a sunset ceremony July 16 near Santa Barbara.
The Perfect Man's Hilary Duff and Deuce Bigalo: European Gigolo's Rob Schneider will co-host the Teen Choice Awards on Fox August 16. This is perhaps the strangest duo I've ever heard of. Duff's Agent Cody Banks co-star Frankie Muniz has become engaged to his girlfriend, Jamie, whom he has been dating since the spring.
Brad Pitt checked out of Los Angeles' Cedars Sinai Medical Center July 13, two days after being admitted for "flu-like symptoms" that turned out to be viral meningitis. His publicist says the Mr. & Mrs. Smith star is "doing well" and resting at home.
The Manchurian Candidate co-star Angela Lansbury underwent knee-replacement surgery July 14.
Actress Frances Langford, who appeared in dozens of movies including Broadway Melody, Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Glenn Miller Story and Every Night at Eight, passed away July 11. She was 92.
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
