New P.T. Anderson Play Shatters Snoopy-Humping Taboo

The Paul Thomas Anderson Stage Revue we'd mentioned a while back was finally unveiled last night at Largo, where Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph reportedly performed a succession of new sketches with Jon Brion's musical accompaniment. And according to one eyewitness who espied Jack Black and Paul Dano among his fellow attendees, the show was a little less There Will Be Blood than Punch-Drunk Love, with liberal, Altmanesque doses of I Really Don't Feel Like Writing Another Feature-Length Screenplay Right Now tossed in for good measure: More »

Paul Thomas Anderson enthusiasts, take note: Word from the Largo mailing list (via /Film) has a PTA-scripted performance by Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen going off Aug. 5-6 at the club's new space at the Coronet Theater. Organizers are keeping mum about everything but the price — $25 — and that tickets are available now. As the second home of Anderson's frequent composer Jon Brion (who maintains a regular Friday gig) and other collaborators including Michael Penn and Aimee Mann, Largo seems a reasonable stopover for the filmmaker, though it hardly seems right that Fred Fucking Armisen unofficially inherits Daniel Day-Lewis's leading-man mantle in the "mad, beautiful" continuum that is the PTA canon. Rudolph though? OK, sure, we can see it. [Largo via /Film]

Unleash Your Inner Oil Baron

While we wait for Paul Thomas Anderson to reissue a There Will Be Blood DVD edition that his masterpiece and its fans deserve, we can take comfort in the imagination of said fans around the Internet. We've learned that today, for example, is the first-ever International Talk Like Daniel Plainview Day, honoring Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis's eminently quotable anti-hero for the ages. "If you've ever heard about 'Talk Like A Pirate Day,' this is essentially in the same vein," write organizers Harrison Simon and Donald Polaski. "Also, do your best to drink a milkshake, preferably someone else's." Some sample quotes follow, but we will probably default to taking our dates to the Peach Tree Dance. I said, get liquored up and take 'em to the Peach Tree Dance! Bastard in a basket! I'm finished. [Facebook]

An Open Letter to P.T. Anderson on the Occasion of 'There Will Be Blood''s Miserable DVD Release

Dear Paul Thomas Anderson, More »

Paul Thomas Anderson: Crazy Asshole, Apparently Liked Juno

Paul Thomas Anderson, the auteur behind There Will Be Blood, recently had some angry words for Carpetbagger and delightful character David Carr. Anderson, who "can be a real arrogant brat", evidently flipped out on Carr when he overheard Carr saying that Blood wasn't his absolute, super-ist favorite movie of the year. "You know you don't know a fucking thing about movies!" he shrieked at "the Bagger", and added, cryptically, "[Blood is] the best movie of the year. Except for maybe Juno. And Clayton. And Atonement. Other than that, it was the best movie of the year." Well, I guess that's rather diplomatic of him. Though he's still an asshole: "You really think No Country for Old Men...that movie was better than ours? C'mon, do you really believe that?" Yup. A glorious, gifted asshole. Maybe he could take some lessons from Carr, who used to be quite the hard partier, on calming down and being cool. We think Carr's pretty good at it. [Hollywood Elsewhere] After the jump, video of the Carpetbagger kicking off the awards season. More »

Overthinking 'Blood': What Did Daniel Plainview Tell Eli?

Remember a few years back when a not-quite-audible stolen whisper between Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson in Lost In Translation got the entire cinematic world buzzing? Well, while taking in our third viewing of There Will Be Blood the other evening, we noticed a scene in which something very similar occurs. Just moments after Daniel Plainview's now legendary "I have abandoned my boy!" outburst at the Church Of The Third Revelation (the scene that will likely go down as having locked up Daniel Day-Lewis' second Oscar for Best Actor), there is a brief exchange that takes place between him and Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) just after Plainview has been violently baptized. In the clip (see above), not only can no dialogue between the actors be heard, but Paul Thomas Anderson's shooting script does not specifically indicate what the characters are saying to each other at this moment. Yet, as the clip clearly demonstrates, there is a relatively heated (if one-sided) conversation between the two. We have a few theories on what went down but, at this point, we would rather open it up for you to discuss. Leave your comments after the jump! More »

Clues To Tony Soprano's Fate Lie In Santa Monica Whole Foods

PrivacyWatch celebrity sightings are submitted by our readers, and are posted several times a week, so send them in often. Submit yours to tips[AT]defamer.com (please put "sighting" or "PrivacyWatch" in the subject line) and tell everyone about the time Maya Rudolph's yakking ruined an outdoor screening of her boyfriend's porn-industry masterpiece. More »

Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle

Overheard at the Matthew Barney exhibit: (when a guy at a suddenly partially visible urinal complained that the mens room door was being propped open by the line) "We just spent 45 minutes in someone's ovaries. I'm sure no one cares about seeing you take a piss." More »