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Prince William and Kate get cuddly. Nicole Richie gets married, elephant in tow. Miley Cyrus soldiers on despite bong-ripping controversy, and Madonna is banned from TV. Sunday gossip round up is a blizzard of titillating details More »
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In your downright fraudulent Friday media column: A fakester is claiming to work for W, Forbes is losing a top editor and National Lampoon will help your weekend arrive sooner. More »
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We know the world is bereft of new ideas, but doesn't the "Into the Wood" shoot in the September issue of Vogue remind you of something? Like, um, the "Into the Woods" shoot W did two years ago? More »
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The W. DVD is going to have some killer double features. First, video was leaked of the violent arrest of Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright, and now TMZ has their surprisingly funny squad car banter. More »
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On today's edition of The View, the political fireworks came not from Elisabeth Hasselbeck but from Richard Dreyfuss, who turned in a masterful bit of anti-promotion for his role as Dick Cheney in Oliver Stone's W. With little prompting, Dreyfuss turned on his director, branding him a "fascist" and, when asked what he was like to work with, declaring, "Imagine working for Sean Hannity." "I would like that!" Hasselbeck immediately chirped. We know, Liz. W. was already on somewhat shaky ground after an Oscar buzz-draining second weekend, but we're sure that Dreyfuss's deviation from his talking points won't help, either. Josh Brolin, it might be time to start vetting those Milk FYC ads.

• The View [ABC]

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Early Monday morning, Arkansas news anchor Anne Pressly—who had a bit part as Ann Coulter in the new movie W—was attacked and stabbed in her home. By Tuesday she was national news. By Wednesday, she was international news, and the less savory members of the media were scrambling point out that it had not been ruled out that she could have been attacked by a crazy political Hollywood stalker potential serial killer. Today, even the Post acknowledges that police think the attack was likely random. Which of course means that the conspiracy angle will be back tomorrow. Get well soon, Anne! More »
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Oliver Stone is keeping everyone waiting today at Slate, where he's set to engage Bob Woodward and a few other reporters over the facts and slip-ups threading his new film W. Thing have remained mostly civil so far — no Taser jokes or Christian Bale casting rumors — though a few factual liberties have set off a bit of protest in the ranks. Thankfully, while they wait for Stone, Lionsgate now offers a pleasing historical reference for the rest of us. Behold — W. For Dummies. More »
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Yesterday we told you that Anne Pressly, an Arkansas morning news anchorwoman who played an Ann Coulter-like pundit in the new Oliver Stone flick W, was attacked and stabbed in her home early Monday morning (she's now expected to recover). The crime has predictably attracted a lot of international attention: it involves a pretty woman, a journalist, Hollywood, and politics. So what new facts have we learned about the case today? None at all, really. Unless you ask the media, in which case, CONSPIRACY?!?!?: More »
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Anne Pressly, the anchorwoman of a 5 a.m. TV newscast in Little Rock, Arkansas, was attacked in her home, beaten, and stabbed some time early Monday morning. She's now in critical condition. Her other claim to fame: she played (a younger, more attractive) Ann Coulter in the new Oliver Stone flick W. And like the restaurant critic yesterday who was attacked in Albany, there seems to be some suspicion Pressly may have been specifically targeted: More »
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Time to unzip your Happy Weekend Suit and step back into your Monday Morning Iron Maiden: The work week is again upon us. Quick—jumpstart your productivity with some box office numbers before someone finds your position detrimental to the bottom line: More »
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Welcome back to Defamer Attractions, your one and only guide to everything new, noteworthy and potentially noxious at the movies. This week sees Oliver Stone officially establish the land-speed record for producing an Oscar contender, joined by skull-cracking Mark Wahlberg, sex-driving Seth Green and our diva-colored underdog. As always, someone's gotta lose; we'll call our shot there, too, along with cherry-picking through a new crop of DVD's. As always, our opinions are our own, but we have little doubt they would look great on you. Try them on after the jump. More »
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Despite the skeptics, Oliver Stone and Lionsgate have made bringing a film to market in five months flat look relatively easy. But a Defamer operative points out that they clearly underestimated the work required to produce W.'s Web site in the same time, offering us the accompanying Latin dummy text in place of actor Ioan Gruffudd's biographical background. (NB: It's pronounced "YO-han GRIF-fith.") Perhaps the actor never sent it, or maybe it was in Latin, or maybe this is just one of many quirky Easter eggs Lionsgate is loading into its W. campaign. Considering how well the Taserrific bar-brawl worked a few months back, we wouldn't put it past them. Let us know your theory after the jump. [Lionsgate] More »
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W. star and Shreveport jail alumnus Josh Brolin spoke up for the first time on Wednesday about his bar brawl and subsequent detention by that city's police, illustrating a Southern idyll where he was maced, co-star Jeffrey Wright was Tasered and his assistant was hauled to jail for "asking too many questions." And while Brolin and his lawyers wait for the authorities to drop the charges that require him back in court later this fall, we're finally learning exactly how not throw a wrap party in Louisiana — if you must throw one at all: More »
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Lionsgate hosted the premiere of W. last night at the Landmark, where Josh Brolin, Oliver Stone and a celebrity cast of dozens dropped by for the first public-ish screening of Stone's five-month miracle baby. Elsewhere, in a subterranean dungeon populated by the world's few remaining mainstream film critics, the professionals parsed W. in terms that could best be described as lukewarm — Brolin's performance notwithstanding: More »
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Fearless Predictions, with Oliver Stone: Cindy Adams has been there from the beginning with W., with her ambitious rewrite earlier this summer recently giving way to a late bit of story consulting with director Oliver Stone. Trouble persists at the 11th hour, however, as Stone's satiric dystopia hardly conforms to Adams's more optimistic vision at all: "There's no malice in the movie. It's just that it becomes obvious Bush's legacy has been trashed. The family name doesn't mean anything anymore. Like, for instance, Jeb Bush will never be president." And what will the president think of the film? "He'll say it's horseshit." Wait until he sees how our crystal ball plays it out. [NYP] More »
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As rumors circulate that Condoleezza Rice was passed up for John McCain's vice presidential slot due to questions about her sexuality, her film portrayer Thandie Newton sat down for an interview with gay magazine The Advocate. The actress, who is playing Rice in Oliver Stone's election-tipping presidential fantasia W., said that she herself doesn't believe Rice is a lesbian — and it's too bad, because Newton has the same-sex experience that could have informed such a role: More »
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The W. news cycle is picking up again in advance of its Oct. 17 release date, and this time around no one even had to go to jail: A few days after Vanity Fair showcased a fresh family photo from the Shreveport set, a new, more irony-embracing TV spot is circulating online. View it after the jump, and tell us if Defamer's finely calibrated crystal ball didn't see the George W. Bush and Friends Variety Hour vibe coming a mile away. And if you still don't believe Oliver Stone had a laff riot in mind from the belated start, a new interview with GQ not only confirms it, but introduces a fantastic, regrettably retroactive casting rumor that would have elevated our expectations beyond W. simply backfiring in Democrats' faces next month: More »
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Here's a photo from More »
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When we wondered a few weeks ago whether Josh Brolin might be bringing too much sexual energy to his role as George W. Bush in the upcoming Oliver Stone-directed biopic W., little did we know how much extra erotic mojo the actor has to throw around. In fact, in an interview with (the very appropriately named) W magazine, a freshly unjailed Brolin revealed the recipient of his most unlikely sexual crush — his own father, James Brolin: More »
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Our office's crystal ball usually tends to function best on Fridays — and even then, as we handicap new releases in our Defamer Attractions column, it can be a tad hinky. But after a few weeks of painstaking inquiry, we think we now have a handle on some of the fall movie slate's biggest revelations to come. Will Brad Pitt backward-age his way to Oscar immortality? Is Twilight really the best investment for your vampire-movie dollars? Can Beverly Hills Chihuahua live up to its exceptional promise? Follow the jump for answers to those and a few of the season's other pressing questions. Feel free to scan your own tea leaves as well; our own oracle shuddered and crapped out the minute we asked about Australia, so any and all input is welcome. Onward! More »
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Barbra/Bush AwkwardWatch: On the eve of her command performance at an Obama fundraiser at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, Barbra Streisand has learned she's been made a Kennedy Center Honoree, which involves a reception at the White House, then sitting in a balcony just inches away from President George W. Bush as she relives her life in variety show form. To make things even more awkward, ABC News also points out that this will come two months after "Streisand's stepson, Josh Brolin, hits theaters playing Bush in the Oliver Stone-directed biopic W." Oh, can't we set aside our petty differences just one night to bliss out to the underrated sex appeal of Marvin Hamlisch, people? [ABC News] More »
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Our skepticism regarding the five-month turnaround on W. was founded as much in Lionsgate's potential to move the marketing as it was in Oliver Stone's curious capacity to work that fast. And while we're not necessarily wrong yet, this new, pre-GOP Convention clip making the rounds hints that the whole thing may come together yet — as a date movie! Who knew? Follow the jump for a glimpse at the introduction of librarian Laura Welch to future husband and president George Bush Jr. ("Call me anything but 'Junior'") — two drawling souls joined forever in what's since been recognized the Backyard BBQ Come-On Heard 'Round the World. Awww! [YouTube via Spout] More »
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Considering how the trailer for Oliver Stone's W. focused rather heavily on James Cromwell and Louis Armstrong, we're happy to bring you this new behind-the-scenes clip (courtesy of Access Hollywood), which offers the first extended glimpse of Josh Brolin doing his best impression of The Decider. It's the impersonation that's split the Defamer offices in half, with some calling it uncannily accurate (and uncomfortably erotic), and others finding Brolin miscast and not ready for prime time. We'll let you (and Elisabeth Hasselbeck!) be the judge, though keep in mind this is all B-roll; once Oliver Stone finally makes use of that green screen to take Bush on a kaleidoscopic journey through the jungles of Vietnam to the tune of "Riders on the Storm," perhaps we'll have the context we need to truly appreciate Brolin's performance. Catch the performance in all its glory after the jump. More »
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Still reeling from their recent poster contretemps with self-declared marketing genius Dane Cook, the crew at Lionsgate was quick to reclaim its edge with yet another shrewd move on behalf of Oliver Stone's forthcoming W. Having successfully leaped from the innovative "Shreveport Arrest Phase" to the "Benson-esque Trailer Phase" of its campaign, a new step-and-repeat poster onslaught has taken over Denver — host city of this month's Democratic National Convention. The art, viewable after the jump, features Josh Brolin doing his best imperious-child act beneath the tagline "A life misunderestimated"; we expect its GOP Convention analogue — perhaps with the flight-suited Commander-in-Chief grinning alongside the even more succinct slogan "Four more months" — to infiltrate Minneapolis-St. Paul by the end of next week. More »
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We're sorry to note this morning that the laff-a-minute presidential opus W. has earned its first negative review, and it's one from which the film may have difficulty recovering: Elisabeth Hasselbeck needed only the trailer to swear off Oliver Stone's all-star romp through the life and times of George W. Bush, citing the filmmaker's "bias" and critical treatment of a sitting Commander in Chief. Her outraged View co-hosts Sherri Shepherd and Whoopi Goldberg — the latter still stung by the crippling backlash to trailers for her 2006 classic Homie Spumoni — warned of the implications of judging too harshly before seeing the film, but it was no use. Damage control is on at Lionsgate, meanwhile, where desperate marketing kingpin Tim Palen reportedly earmarked up to a third of his studio's new $340 million credit line for an early, spoilerrific David Letterman rave. Alas, some bells just can't be unrung. [AOL] More »
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Here's the new teaser trailer for Oliver Stone's under-anticipated biopic of our dim president's early years, W.. Josh Brolin plays the young, hedonistic Bush whose dreams of wearing tuxedo t-shirts to state dinners and not routing dictators are dashed after papa (James Cromwell) chides him for being an entitled wastrel and tells him to grow the hell up. Judging by the arch soundtrack ("What a Wonderful World") and goofy close-ups, we shouldn't expect too deep of a psychological investigation. The only conflict Stone's Dubya would ever call "Oedipal" is deciding whether to eat dog food as part of his frat hazing ritual. More »
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"You're a Bush! Act like one!" So begins the heartwarming teaser for W., Oliver Stone's lighting-round satire of George W. Bush's trajectory from hard-partying Texas schlub to dynastic political ringleader. And if we ever doubted the likelihood this would be a satire, one run through the casting roll call — a montage of furrowed brows and hammy smiles clearly drawing from the influential opening credits of Benson — all but confirms the variety-show flavor of the administration's antics. From Truman Capote as Karl Rove to Thandie Newton making her best law-circumventing face as Condoleezza Rice, this is shaping up to as the shrewdest political comedy of the season. NB: If our make-up looked as half-assed as Jeffrey Wright's does here as Colin Powell, we probably would have overturned the wrap party, too. Go easy on him, Shreveport. [via First Showing] More »
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The good times keep a-rollin' in Louisiana for the Stray Cat Gang — including Josh Brolin, Jeffrey Wright and a smattering of crew members arrested at Saturday's W wrap party in Shreveport. New reports allege Wright fielded at least one ethnic slur from an onlooker after being escorted out of the Stray Cat with unruly lighting technician Eric Felland. Brolin and company went down a little later when coming to Wright's aid — i.e. "interfering with that arrest," according to Shreveport police Cpl. Robert Elliott. Furthermore, "a rep for Brolin ... didn't say what the rehabbed actor was drinking," according to Rush and Molloy. Next up for the group: An encore on Dec. 2, when all are due back in court. Meanwhile, chalk up another incentive for filmmaking in Louisiana — the only state where you can cast, scout and produce an entire movie faster than the legal system can prosecute its stars. [NYDN] More »
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If we had just produced an entire feature film in about 12 days like the gang behind Oliver Stone's W, then we, too, would probably have been in a bit of hell-raising mood when it was all said and done. We're not sure if getting arrested would have been on the agenda, but we'll grant newly shorn Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright the benefit of the doubt, anyway: The duo, who play President Bush and Colin Powell in the film, spent some time in custody early Saturday after coming to the aid of a rowdy crew member at a bar in Shreveport, La. More »
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Actor Josh Brolin is getting way, way into character while shooting Oliver Stone's George W. Bush biopic, W., in Shreveport, Louisiana. He was busted last night for interfering with cops outside a local watering hole when they tried to arrest a pal of his for public drunkenness. More »
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As the clock ticks down to the planned (and totally insane!) October 17th release date of Oliver Stone's W, more details are emerging about the plot and structure of what we're still fairly convinced is some sort of elaborate April Fool's Day stunt. We've seen the teaser poster, and now, the Los Angeles Times' John Horn checks in on the film and reveals what could go down in cinematic history as one of the medium's most outrageous structural devices: More »
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Oliver Stone's upcoming movie about the life of President George W. Bush, W., paints the awful man as a sniveling Daddy's Boy who was so brow-beaten and dismissed by his old man that his entire adult life has been dedicated to disproving the elder Bush's low opinion of him. However, Stone thinks this faithful accuracy will actually appeal to the Bush Clan and the handful of wing-nuts who still support them. "Stone, [the film's star Josh] Brolin and the filmmaking team believe they are crafting a biography so honest that loyal Republicans and the Bushes themselves might see it. Given Stone's filmmaking history, coupled with a sneak peek at an early 'W.' screenplay draft, that prediction looks like wishful thinking." More »
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If there was ever a doubt that Oliver Stone's land-speed record production of W would be anything but a broad political satire of our outgoing president, let it now be allayed with Lionsgate's first teaser poster for the film. Combining eye-chart aesthetics, lexicographic precision and a surplus of malapropisms and other stupid shit George W. Bush has said over the last eight years (our favorite here: "I can press where there needs to be pressed; I can hold hands when there needs to be ... hold hands"), the one-sheet suggests that Stone's lugubrious, self-serious stabs at presidential folklore from JFK to Nixon are in fact over, and his more lilting, equally self-serious Natural Born Killers vein is set to bleed once again over an election-year popular culture. We eagerly await the official one-sheet; if Lionsgate has any sense, they'll use this as inspiration. [/film] More »
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Oliver Stone's semi-comic masterpiece W may yet make its mid-October release deadline, as reports speculate Richard Dreyfuss is close to signing on as vice president Dick Cheney. The role was the only one Stone had not cast for the film, which started shooting last week in Louisiana. The 60-year-old Brooklynite who once fought off Jaws, mashed-potatoed his way into an alien abduction in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and scored a Best Actor Oscar for The Goodbye Girl, will be entrusted with Cheney's despotic war hawk in the weeks ahead. More »
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In her latest gesture of a humane tradition that includes everything from A-list fetus guarding to Yorkie rescue/fetishization, Cindy Adams today saves readers the $11 they would have shelled out to see Oliver Stone's W when it opens this October. While we'd obviously read a few mildly tantalizing reviews in the last month (which is evidently news to Adams, who appears to think she's the only one who's nabbed a copy of the script) it takes a certain rare, Cindyesque fortitude and genius to condense the entirety of Stanley Weiser's 125-page screenplay to a single gossip column in the New York Post: More »
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Oliver Stone's drive to get his Bush biopic W in front of audiences before Election Day acquired new momentum on Thursday — if you can believe it. And we guess we have no choice but to wait and see if the director and Lionsgate, which yesterday picked up the film's North American distribution rights, can place their prismatic presidential quasi-drama on screens by their proposed Oct. 17 release date. Oct. 17! Stone hasn't even cast Dick Cheney yet — for a film that starts shooting Monday. Not a problem, insists the filmmaker, who's still spinning on the big picture: More »
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While we long ago put to rest those rumors that Oliver Stone's forthcoming George Bush biopic W was a fantastically sophisticated April Fools gag on the media and all modest Americans of taste and discretion, it's not like Entertainment Weekly had to go rub it in with its new cover story. But there they are anyway: Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Banks as the President and First Lady, all set to ham it up in the drama Stone is apparently location scouting as we speak. Alas, with Stone swearing up and down he can have the film in theaters by election time, one critical vacuum remains: Who, who will play Dick Cheney? More »
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We spit our whiskey across the bedroom this morning after reading that Oliver Stone's forthcoming W may not live up to the painstaking accuracy standards we've come to expect from the filmmaker. After the screenwriter put to bed our concerns that the pranks and outbursts included in last week's script review were not, in fact, April Fool's Day gags, Bush biographers are getting all fussy today over the actual historical record: More »
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The hyper-sensitive Defamer April Fool's Bullshit Scanner went off again moments ago as we browsed ABC.com's exclusive screenplay review of W, Oliver Stone's upcoming biopic about the transition of George W. Bush from spoiled drunk Texas asshole to election-stealing, malaprop-slinging, Jesus-loving Texas asshole. To this very moment, in fact, we can't verify the legitimacy of Marcus Baram's trenchant read-through whose very headline — "Daddy Issues, War Lust in Oliver Stone's W" — flirts with incredulity. To that end, we combed through Baram's script review in an attempt to determine the moments that seem authentic versus those that appear to be inexplicably hacky: More »
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