Christina Aguilera and Russell Brand Team Up For MTV

Fresh off of the launch of her new perfume “Inspire”, Christina Aguilera attended the 2008 MTV VMA press conference to announce that she’ll be performing a special rendition of “Genie in a Bottle” as part of the 25th annual VMA’s most memorable performances.

In what’s sure to be a wondrous performance, Christina’s turn at the stage will also mark her first televised performance since giving birth to baby Max earlier this year.

Along with Christina’s big announcement, MTV VMA host Russell Brand went on to reveal that Kanye West will make his return to the VMAs to close the show with an “explosive finale”. Also of note, rapper T.I. told press on-hand that Rihanna and he will be debuting their new duet for the first time ever.

To catch all of the action, be sure to tune in for the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards live from Paramount Pictures on Sunday at 9PM (ET/PT). And count on Gossip Girls to bring you all of the coverage throughout and after the event!

The Duchess

Set at the end of the eighteenth century, The Duchess is the story of the beautiful and, glamorous Georgiana Spencer, the most fascinating woman of the age.

While her beauty and charisma made her name, her extravagant tastes and appetite for gambling and love made her infamous. Married young to the older, distant Duke of Devonshire, intimate of ministers and princes, Georgiana became a fashion icon, a doting mother, a shrewd political operator and darling of the common people. But at the core of her story is a desperate search for love.

From Georgiana’s passionate and doomed affair with Earl Grey to the complex ménage à trois with her husband and her best friend, Lady Bess Foster, The Duchess is a very contemporary tale of fame, notoriety and the search for love.

Tyler Perry’s The Family that Preys

Academy Award®-winner Kathy Bates and Academy Award®-nominee Alfre Woodard star as the matriarchs of two very different families being torn apart by greed and scandal in the contemporary drama “Tyler Perry’s The Family That Prays.” The sixth feature film by Perry chronicles the inner workings of two families-one upper-crust and the other working class-that become inextricably linked by scandal.

Wealthy socialite Charlotte Cartwright (Kathy Bates) and her dear friend Alice Pratt (Alfre Woodard), a working class woman of high ideals, have enjoyed a lasting friendship throughout many years. Suddenly, their lives become mired in turmoil as their adult children’s extramarital affairs, unethical business practices and a dark paternity secret threaten to derail family fortunes and unravel the lives of all involved. Alice’s self-centered newlywed daughter Andrea (Sanaa Lathan) is betraying her trusting husband Chris (Rockmond Dunbar) by engaging in a torrid affair with her boss and mother’s best friend’s son William (Cole Hauser). While cheating on his wife Jillian (Kadee Strickland) with a string of ongoing dalliances with his mistress Andrea, William’s true focus is to replace the COO of his mother’s lucrative construction corporation. Meanwhile, Alice’s other daughter Pam (Taraji Henson), a kind but no nonsense woman married to a hard working construction worker (Tyler Perry), tries to steer the family in a more positive direction.

While paternity secrets, marital infidelity, greed and unsavory business dealings threaten to derail both families, Charlotte and Alice decide to take a breather from it all by making a cross-country road trip in which they rediscover themselves and possibly find a way to save their families from ruin in “Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys.”

Righteous Kill

veteran New York City police detectives on the trail of a vigilante serial killer in the adrenaline fueled psychological thriller Righteous Kill, directed by Jon Avnet (Red Corner, Fried Green Tomatoes) and written by Russell Gewirtz (Inside Man). The cast also features hip-hop superstar Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson (Get Rich or Die Tryin’).

After 30 years as partners in the pressure cooker environment of the NYPD, highly decorated Detectives David Fisk and Thomas Cowan should be ready for retirement, but aren’t. Before they can hang up their badges, they are called in to investigate the murder of a notorious pimp, which appears to have ties to a case they solved years before.

Like the original murder, the victim is a suspected criminal whose body is found accompanied by a four line poem justifying the killing. When additional crimes take place, it becomes clear the detectives are looking for a serial killer, one who targets criminals that have fallen through the cracks of the judicial system. His mission is to do what the cops can’t do on their own — take the culprits off the streets for good. The similarities between the recent killings and their earlier case raise a nagging question: Did they put the wrong man behind bars?

The Mummy

There have already been quite a few summer action blockbuster movies this year, and the “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” tries to sneak in and make an impact. It is not going to succeed. With “The Dark Knight” already getting incredible critical and box office success, any other movie following that one is doomed, at the best, to be mediocre.

The Mummy franchise returns for a third time and the tragedy of this instalment is just how much of a good thing it squanders. It had millions of dollars and some semblance of an interesting story. But it is unforgivable for the way it wastes some very fine Asian actors like Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh.

The film makers chose to ignore any kind of story and the potential good acting at hand, and chose to just go for as many explosions and as much noise as possible. The plot seems to be at the service of action and some exotic locales. It takes us to the deserts of China, the Himalayas and even allows us to encounter some snow animals called yeti.

Even the dependable actor, Brendan Fraser, gets very little from the script to build on. Another fine actress, Maria Bello, is not allowed to sink her teeth into the role. There is no chemistry between these two lead actors or between Fraser and Luke Ford, who plays his son. Ford could go down as the most bland character in an action movie this year.

The movie starts with a flashback from history of an ancient emperor along with his army being turned to clay by a spell cast by a woman. The woman is in love with another man and the emperor is against this union. Fast forward a few thousand years and Luke Ford’s character has discovered this tomb, and well, all hell breaks loose after this. This is also the point where the movies starts losing its wheels and just rambles on, taking us for an inconsequential ride.

The only good thing about this movie is the action. It delivers in some way.

There is nothing new in terms of technique or filming, but it does strive hard to thrill. Pre-teens may find this appealing and adults looking for a good break from anything cerebral might also appreciate the explosions.

The director Rob Cohen might have understood this a little too well and thinks he doesn’t have to offer anything more than that. The writers, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, are not interested in coming up with anything fresh or even aware of the sheer acting potential in all their actors. Each of these actors has won rave reviews for at least one other performance in other movies. They could have been given much more to handle in this one.

This movie works best when there are no expectations and demands. For the sake of pure thrill and mindless fun with action in exotic locales, this movie will satisfy.

Mirrors

Mirrors is a 2008 remake of the 2003 South Korean horror film Into the Mirror, directed by Alexandre Aja, director of the remake of The Hills Have Eyes, and starring Kiefer Sutherland. The film was first titled Into the Mirror, but the name was later changed to Mirrors. Filming began on May 1, 2007. The film was released on August 15, 2008. The film carries an R rating by the MPAA for strong violence, disturbing images, language and brief nudity.

Directed by : Alexandre Aja
Produced by : Alexandre Aja Grégory Levasseur
Written by : Alexandre Aja Grégory Levasseur
Starring : Kiefer Sutherland Paula Patton
Music by : Javier Navarrete
Cinematography : Maxime Alexandre
Distributed by : 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) : August 15, 2008
Country Romania : United States
Language: English
Budget : $35 Million

The movie starts with a man running away from something. He then runs into a room full of mirrors. He desperately apologizes to his reflection for running away in hopes of forgiveness. To his horror, the mirror begins to crack and a piece falls off. Trying to redeem himself, he picks up the shard with the intention of putting it back on the mirror. However, his reflection slashes his throat and the man dies.

Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland), a former undercover detective who was suspended after shooting another officer, takes a nighttime security job at a department store that was gutted by a fire. The department store used to be a psychiatric hospital that experimented in treating schizophrenia. In 1952, a mass killing took place and the hospital was closed. It was later reopened as a luxury department store, the Mayflower.

Ben’s round begins normally, though on his first night he sees a door open in a mirror’s reflection while it is actually closed. After investigating, he finds nothing. Following nights expose Ben to more intense visions, which he initially shrugs off as hallucinations. He also finds the wallet of Gary Lewis, the night watchman he is replacing. The only piece of information is a note that says “Esseker.” Ben further hallucinates being set on fire, as well as seeing victims in various parts of the store who were burned to death. Ben then receives a package from Gary Lewis that was sent several days before his death. The package contains newspaper clippings about the fire and other crimes. The man convicted of burning the Mayflower was also convicted of killing his wife and children.

Meanwhile, Angela, Ben’s sister, is getting in the bath and begins to relax, when suddenly her reflection grips her jaw and begins to slowly tear it off. She panicks, but eventually is killed as the jaw remains dangling by only a few muscles. Ben returns to the store and attempts to destroy the mirrors, but they prove impervious and even regenerative. He demands to know what the mirrors want, and ESSEKER appears on a mirror. Ben investigates and finds the name Anna Esseker, a patient of the psychiatric institute. She supposedly died in the mass killing, but Ben discovers that she was actually transferred out two days prior to the mass murder. He realizes that the mirrors will eventually kill his family if he does not find a solution. He attempts to remove or paint the surface of every mirror in his house, but his estranged wife Amy uncovers them and believes that he is undergoing a breakdown. She abandons these thoughts when she discovers her son Michael’s reflection in a mirror remains after her son leaves the room. Amy calls Ben, who immediately returns home, and together they cover the reflective surfaces. Shortly after, Ben discovers Anna Esseker’s home: a convent which she moved into after being cured. Anna explains to Ben that she was possessed by a demon, and while in the hospital she was confined to a chair and surrounded by mirrors, as the doctors’ believed the treatment would cure her schizophrenia. In reality, the demon within her was drawn from her and became trapped in the mirrors.

Ben begs Anna to come back to the department store so that the demon will leave his family alone. Anna refuses. Meanwhile, Ben’s family is attacked by the mirrors. Because he feels the demon in the mirrors is a friend, Michael cleans the paint from all reflective surfaces and turns all the faucets on . Amy is repeatedly attacked but saves her daughter from having her throat slashed. Amy calls Ben for help, and he abducts Anna at gunpoint. Anna returns to the mirror room and tells Ben to strap her tight, then leave immediately. Amy finds Michael playing in the water that is flooding the home and creating a reflective surface. To Amy’s horror, Michael is pulled through the surface of the water and is trapped on the other side.

As Anna opens her eyes and becomes repossessed, the mirrors explode. Ben returns to the mirror room and discovers that Anna can now crawl on the ceiling and walls and has superhuman strength. Ben shoots her but fails to wound her. He then impales her on a broken steam pipe that ignites a nearby gas line. He tries to escape the crumbling building but Anna attacks again and he is forced to fight her off. The building comes down on Anna, and Ben is able to escape.

At the family’s home, Amy claws at the surface of the water in an attempt to rescue her drowning son. Suddenly, Michael is released from the other side of the reflection and Amy is able to pull him to safety and revive him with CPR.

Ben, alive but injured, pulls himself out of the rubble and exits the building to the street. Police, paramedics and firemen are everywhere, but nobody stops Ben as he leaves. He realizes that something is different because the name on a badge is written in reverse; even a wound from earlier in the movie is on the opposite hand. Fleeing the scene, he happens upon a mirror and places his hand on it. The audience sees a mirror with Ben’s hand print on it. Ben is trapped in the mirror world.

Cast

* Kiefer Sutherland … Ben Carson
* Paula Patton … Amy Carson
* Cameron Boyce … Michael Carson
* Erica Gluck … Daisy Carson
* Amy Smart … Angela Carson
* Mary Beth Peil … Anna Esseker
* John Shrapnel … Lorenzo Sapelli
* Jason Flemyng … Larry Byrne
* Tim Ahern … Dr. Morris

Tropic Thunder

Let’s assume that any gimlet-eyed son in the high-energy household of famous comedians Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara would have had a rare opportunity to observe creative self-absorption and celebrity neurosis at close range. Still, that accident of showbiz genetics doesn’t do credit to Ben Stiller’s unique powers of ruthless insight into the Homo thespianus, and to his talents for a hilarious conjuring of the species.

A good Stiller project, from Zoolander to Dodgeball, is likely to be about a voluble extrovert of exquisite short-guy egotism, with insecurity nipping at his shoes and fury goading him on to fine eruptions of pomposity as delightful for the audience as they are blood-pressure-raising for the blusterer. Now comes Tropic Thunder, the very best and funniest of them, about a small army of such strutting peacocks, a cast of actors off on an acting adventure on the set of a war picture in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

How up their own tushies are these paragons of overpaid Hollywood privilege? They wander into the middle of a real drug war that doesn’t conform to the rules of on-location productions — no assistants nearby with bottled water, no fake bullets — and they don’t even know it. This is Stiller’s Hellzapoppin’ Apocalypse Now — the ultimate fighting machine of comedies-about-the-making-of-movies. It’s raunchy, outspoken — and also a smart and agile dissection of art, fame, and the chutzpah of big-budget productions that just so happens to include a naked, bleach-blond Jack Black, as a drug-addled movie star, draped over the back of a water buffalo.

About that eyeball-searing image: Black plays Jeff Portnoy, a John Candy-like performer trying to show he can embody more than a flatulent fatty in the gas-passing comedy franchise that earned him his fortune. Stiller, who directed and co-wrote the script with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen, plays Tugg Speedman, an action superstar no longer so super. (His Scorcher series has begun to die hard; his big attempt to stretch his range, playing the mentally handicapped title role in Simple Jack, was a failed attempt at prestige and yet undoubtedly more watchable than I Am Sam.) And in a virtuoso turn from everyone’s favorite redeemed virtuoso, Robert Downey Jr. elegantly dispatches the mishegoss of Method acting with his double-difficulty feat of playing Kirk Lazarus, an Oscar-loaded Australian artiste who commits to the role of an African-American soldier by undergoing skin pigmentation and speaking in a Shaft-meets-Uncle Ben patois even when the camera is off. Such shtick wears thin on the real African-American in the cast, a rapper-turned-actor played by Brandon T. Jackson.

There’s not even room here to linger on Tom Cruise’s eye-catching, image-salvaging romp as a puffy, crude, bald, hairy-chested Jewish producer; Nick Nolte’s authoritative turn as the grizzled technical adviser John ”Four Leaf” Tayback, whose Vietnam memoir is herein being dramatized; the maniacal antics of Pineapple Express’ Danny McBride as an explosives expert; or the crucial Brit-twit-comes-to-La-La-Land machinations of Steve Coogan (soon to be seen in Hamlet 2) as the overmatched British director of the bedeviled, behind-schedule, over-budget movie-within-the-movie (also called Tropic Thunder). The point is that with every character, and with every believably outrageous turn of the plot (beginning with fictional promotional movie trailers preceding the actual feature — each one a perfect comedy haiku), Stiller brings real insider knowledge of — and compassion for — the big business of Hollywood make-believe to bear on a comedy that is itself a superior factory creation of make-believe.

Like a postmodern magician, Downey shows how it’s really done — without detracting from the pleasures available to those who don’t care at all how it’s done, just that the entertainment includes explosions. Even an outsider with no obsessive interest in, say, how to rig the fake blood and severed limbs of movie battle will love Downey’s mid-gore Method struggle for character motivation. And all it takes to marvel, through non-PC tears of laughter, at the wisdom delivered by Downey about how to win an Oscar for portraying a handicap is a pulse.

Joan Rivers slams Angelina Jolie on TV

Comedienne Joan Rivers has taken aim at Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie branding her as “stupid”.

Rivers used Jolie as the centerpiece for her gags while being interviewed on British TV show GMTV, reports Hollywood.com.

“Well, I have worked with stupid actresses and I have worked with Angelina Jolie. I mean she is attractive, but not a bright girl. Stunningly beautiful but stupid,” said Rivers.

This is not the first time that Rivers has attacked celebrities on British TV.

In June, she was asked to leave an interview on the show “Loose Women” after she called actor Russell Crowe names.

Jason Donovan set to release first album after 15 years

Aussie actor and singer Jason Donovan is all set to release his first album in fifteen years, called ‘Let It Be Me’.

The new album, which has been inspired by music from the late 1950s and early 1960s, comes after a long gap from his last album, ‘All Around the World’, which stayed at number 27 on the UK charts in 1993.

‘Let It Be Me’ features new versions of classic songs like Blue Velvet, Love Hurts and Smoke Gets In My Eyes, the BBC reported.

Added to the work on the new album, is the reworked old hit ‘Sealed With a Kiss’ and written new track ‘Dreamboats’ and ‘Petticoats’.

Donovan, 40, has had hit songs like ‘Too Many Broken Hearts’ in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and has enjoyed a TV comeback in recent years. (ANI)

Spears’ attorney given more time to work on case

According to contactmusic.com, defence lawyer Michael American asked for an extension so they can find out what law applies in the case. The judge has scheduled a hearing for Feb 20 and warned he will order a trial if the lawyers don’t come to an agreement by then.

Spears scraped a car parked in a private parking lot in San Fernando Valley, California, while driving without a valid license.

The hit-and-run charge was caught on camera and was dismissed in court in October after Spears offered a personal apology and a $1,000 in compensation to the vehicle owner.

But Spears still faces a charge of driving without a valid California driving license. At the time of the incident she possessed a permit only from her native Louisiana. She has since then obtained her California license.

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