Or maybe it was delayed retribution for this hilarious spot promoting Conan's move to the Tonight Show?

Either way: We missed you, Tina.

Right off the bat, Finke admits she's not into lists, writing:

"Last year I was on Elle's Women in Hollywood power list; this year I was asked to write it. That's ironic, because I hate power lists more than one-size-fits-all spa robes. These influential jobs are not necessarily comparable. Are the casting directors I included more important than the cinematographers and film editors I didn't? So what I have is a very subjective roster of women I deem essential to a town run by alpha males who don't play well with others. Women in general do."

The List is split up into sections; there's The Movie Executives; The TV Executives; the awfully titled "The Wives & Daughters." But first and foremost there's The Talent — which includes Tyra Banks, Beyoncé, director Kathyrn Bigelow, Miley Cyrus, Ellen DeGeneres and Tina Fey. Also on that list? Michael Patrick King, whom Finke calls "2009's honorary female." Finke explains:

He gave us the best years of Sex and the City on TV and can be credited for reviving the chick flick in Hollywood when the movie version grossed $415 million.

The commenters on Women In Hollywood are split. One writes:

I just dislike that she left out a woman in order to include Michael Patrick King as an "honorary female". It is not good to be told that a man knows and produces women's films better than women.

But another replies:

That bugged me as well… but then I thought, well… It's the biggest film starring a cast of women of all time. He may not be a woman, but his film surely did something great for women in Hollywood, especially with a cast of women 40+.

Here's the question: If a man sympathetic to women is in power, is it as good as a woman in power? I'm going to go with: No. Because the more women pulling strings and making executive decisions the better. But since Finke makes a point about the SATC franchise being a powerhouse — and generates some buzz by including a man — she gets a pass from me. Disagree?

The Most Powerful Women in Hollywood According to Nikki Finke [Women In Hollywood]
Nikki Finke's Power List [Elle.com]
Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood

Earlier: Hollywood Heavy Nikki Finke: Victim Of Misogyny, And Misogynist Extraordinaire

He is just nuts, this one! The show is not a light-hearted romp, or gently mocking tribute. It is basically a reenactment of the various scummy things listed in the criminal complaint against the former Illinois governor, "making ample use of tape." The Tribune's theater critic describes the surreal scene:

Blagojevich only showed up at the start of the Navy Pier show (above), and in the improv set at the end. But he still found time to recite a portion of the St. Crispin's Day speech from "Henry V," shill for his wife's reality TV show set in the jungles of Costa Rica ("If you can vote for her, please do"), invite the cast of this "fictional show" to dinner ("we'll be serving tarantulas"), indict the "football" hairbrush used in the Navy Pier show as "too small," and get off a few gags.

What a weird, weird guy.

[Via Wonkette]

Did you wake up this morning feeling like it was your lucky day? Well, it wasn't as baseless and miserably ironic a claim as it usually is. Because today we learn that Lionsgate, beautiful studio of Saw movies, is allowing Tyler Perry to foist two more of his talkies upon this world. One stars recent Oscar-nominee Taraji P. Henson (Taraji P.! Noooo!!) and the other is a sequel to his landmark Janet Jackson film, Why Did I Get Married? Because Tyler Perry told you to. That's why. [Variety]

Don't worry. That theatre documentary Theater of War about Meryl Streep performing a Tony Kushner translation of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children outdoors in the summer of 2006 (saw it, amazing) has found a distributor. Alive Media will handle all that business for you, and the doc will soon be out on DVD. What a relief, huh? [Variety]

The long will-they-or-won't-they battle over Dinner for Schmucks has finally been resolved. Once thought lost to the terrible split between Paramount and DreamWorks, the Steve Carell makes funny ha-ha's with Paul Rudd while director Jay Roach sits on and nods like an asshole comedy will begin shooting in October, and everyone has a stake! Paramount and DreamWorks even, with a 33% investment. Broken homes ain't broke until they broke, y'all. [Variety]

Oh good. World's most annoying actress Dakota Fanning will play Cheri Currie while vastly overrated Twilight sellout Kristen Stewart mopes as Joan Jett in a biopic about The Runaways, a 70's early wave punk band from the sun-stained streets of Los Angeles. In other news, Haley Joel Osment has just been cast as Steven Tyler and Alex D. Linz will play Bob Dylan in a highly reworked version of Tom Stoppard's play Rock and Roll. [Variety]

Firefly enchantress Gina Torres has finally found work again, this time in a pilot called Washington Field. Also Indira Varma, who played (swoon) Vorenus' wife Niobe on Rome, has landed the plummest role of them all: the lead in Shonda Rhimes' new series Inside the Box, about the busy staff at a news program who must deal with both workplace complexities and their erratic emotional lives that exist just... outside the box. As news of this show develops, many ladies have already begun rabidly clapping, while others have experienced spontaneous and unpredictable bouts of vomiting and eye-bleeding. [THR]

The cult-entangled actor has been running around Hollywood, taking meetings with all manner of directors and studio heads, trying to sell that old song and dance about Tom Cruise the Big Movie Star. And he has a small flotilla of projects to show for it! There are a few comedies—a long-gestating Hardy Boys thing with Ben Stiller, a Chinese/American laff romance with the always hilarious Ziyi Zhang, something with Cameron Diaz about Kansas—that would, in theory, capitalize on his scene-chewing Thunder role. And then there's the usual pile of thrillers about imperiled presidents or team-ups with Denzel.

Like one of those over-eager contestants on I Want to Work for Diddy, the personal strength that Cruise is now touting via Variety is he will do pretty much anything to sell a movie, including one supposes, dialing back the crazy.

The only problem is that none of these movies really sound like the next Mission: Impossible or even Minority Report. It's B-material that they're throwing a new coat of paint on now that a former movie star is sniffing around for property to resuscitate his career. One of the potential projects is described as such: "a team of government agents rescued from a plane crash in the Himalayas by an advanced civilization and given superhuman abilities." Which, um, OK. Himalayas? Yes. Plane crash? Yes. Superhuman abilities? Absolutely. But doesn't this sound like, at best, a Vin Diesel vehicle? I mean, is that horrible Chris Evans going to costar as the snappy, brash young sidekick or something? Cruise used to do Event Movies. Now it's Alive meets Fantastic Four and pictures about Wichita and Cameron D. Plus, the last career milestone for Tom is that elusive Oscar. He's not going to get it this way.

So he's working. Good for him, he's earned it. But the quality may take some time to catch up with his commitment.

Sony purchased the rights to the story and Allen's life. It will be produced by Laura Ziskin, who is behind such classics as As Good As It Gets, Pretty Woman, and Spider-Man. We're thrilled Allen will get yet more recognition, and a little money, but still, ugh. We can't believe we weren't cynical enough to predict this quiet, moving story would soon become yet more manipulative pop trash. [THR, Variety]

One of the problems is that Mr. Sanghoee wants to direct it himself. Also, it's a movie about Wall Street coming out during a recession. Also, it's a self-funded vanity project that will end in tears and massive debt. And films financed in this briefly fashionable style have all tended to do poorly. (Remember The Kingdom?)

A fund in Atlanta weighing a $7.5 million investment has cut back by $3 million. A $5 billion hedge fund group that was supposed to handle debt financing now has other priorities, namely liquidating 80 percent of its holdings.

Still, the world is full of suckers with money, and they're often willing to give it to fellow suckers with money. So this film will probably get made, in some fashion. And we'll all get to experience that increasingly common joy of watching bad things happen to bankers when it tanks. If we even notice it come out.

The latest questions about the personal corporation Franken set up to handle his entertainment enterprises came in the wake of news last week that Franken owes California $5,800 in back taxes and penalties for failing to file state income tax returns for the corporation from 2003 to 2007.

The dollar figure represents a minimum tax charged to corporations with or without reported income.

The campaign explained that no returns were filed because Franken hadn't done business in the state since 2003, and that the accountant was unaware that the corporation, Al Franken Inc. (AFI), had to be formally dissolved.

But Republicans now say Franken has in fact done business in California on many occasions. Using the Internet and information programs such as Lexis Nexis, party researchers found 32 public appearances that Franken made in California from 2003 to 2007, at least eight of which charged an admission fee. For instance, Franken spoke at universities, addressed the Urban Land Institute and debated conservative pundit Ann Coulter for a lecture series.

Now the news that Franken's accountant isn't very good does not seem particularly shocking—even in a prudish backwater like Minnesota. But what they're trying to do is remind everyone that AL FRANKEN WORKED IN CALIFORNIA. Which means he's basically whore-loving party boy Charlie Sheen and pious liberal know-it-all Martin Sheen put together.

Don't worry, Franken fans (surely they must exist!). This scandal won't go anywhere, as everyone in Minnesota will be much too busy talking about the 6 inches of snow they're getting this weekend.

New round of financial questions dogs Franken [Strib]

December 7, 2004 Tuesday

SOURCE: Online

BYLINE: Borys Kit

SECTION: NEWS; Film

LENGTH: 155 words

Scott Rudin will produce an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's upcoming novel "No Country for Old Men" for Paramount Pictures. McCarthy is the critically acclaimed author of such Western-themed novels as "Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West" and the National Book Award-winning "All the Pretty Horses," which was adapted into a movie starring Matt Damon in 2000. "Old Men," a noir thriller set in West Texas, tells the blood-soaked tale of a man on the run with a suitcase full of money being pursued by a number of individuals. It is scheduled to hit bookshelves via Knopf in August. The prolific Rudin exec produced "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," which opens Dec. 17. He also has been involved in "Team America: World Police," "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou," "Closer," "I ? Huckabees," "The Village," "The Manchurian Candidate" and "The Stepford Wives." McCarthy is repped by ICM.