ScottFeinberg.com

By Rachel Bennett
Television Editor & Columnist

***

Last week, it was announced that Patton Oswalt, who hass appeared on such series as CBS’s Two and a Half Men, Fox’s Raising Hope and Showtime’s United States of Tara, will guest star on the upcoming season of FX’s Justified. He will play a former high school classmate of Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant).

Great guest spots are one of my favorite aspects of television. The occurrence can combine an actor and a show that are perfect for one another — even if it’s just temporarily. It can also draw viewers to a show they haven’t checked out yet, possibly giving a struggling series a boost in ratings. Some of my favorite recent moments on series have incorporated fantastic guest stars, including Parker Posey on FX’s Louie and Fox’s New Girl, Giancarlo Esposito on NBC’s Community and Jesse Plemons on AMC’s Breaking Bad.

In the vein of wishful thinking, here are the 10 guest spots I’d love to see happen:

Read the rest of this entry »

By Roger Friedman

Dozens and dozens of Paramount Pictures stars from the past gathered on the famous lot today for a once in a lifetime group photograph. The occasion was the 100th anniversary of the studio. Stars from The Godfather–like Robert DeNiro, James Caan, and Al Pacino, as well as director Francis Ford Coppola–were joined by famous types like Barbra Streisand, Shirley Maclaine, director Peter Bodganovich, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman, plus Martin Scorsese, Gore Verbinski, Tom Cruise, and Charlize Theron.

Click to read more…

Last week, I had the opportunity to chat by phone for about 35 minutes with the actor Jake Gyllenhaal, 30, who will be attending the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night as a best actor (musical or comedy) nominee for his performance opposite Anne Hathaway in Edward Zwick’s edgy romantic-dramedy “Love and Other Drugs” (20th Century Fox, 11/24, R, trailer). In the film, which is largely based on Jamie Reidy’s autobiography, Gyllenhaal inhabits a classic leading man role that Cary Grant would have played if the censors had allowed films like this to be played in his day (and if Viagra had already been invented). His Jamie is a charismatic pharmaceutical salesman who wants perhaps the only woman in the world who doesn’t want him — because, he eventually discovers, she is suffering from early-onset Parkinson’s Disease and dreads the thought of becoming a burden.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Movie Line: Mike Ryan reacted to the news that “Saturday Night Live” will be hosted by best actress hopeful Anne Hathaway (“Love and Other Drugs”) on November 20 and best actor hopeful Jeff Bridges (“True Grit”) on December 18 by asking, “Can the added buzz from hosting ‘SNL’ actually help the chances of a win or even a nomination?” Seeking the answer, he “dug back through 35 years of Oscar nominees and ‘SNL’ hosts to see how often a nominee or winner hosted that same year,” and found that “27 future Oscar nominees have hosted ['SNL'] during the same season that they were nominated or won. (Nine more… hosted during the season, but after the ceremony — call those a victory lap.) Of that 27, seven have gone on to win the award he or she was nominated for — most recently Forest Whitaker.”
• OscarWatch: Dave Karger reports that Disney has released this awards season’s first “For Your Consideration” trade ad, suggesting that voters consider nominating “Alice in Wonderland” for best picture and in 16 other categories, including best director (Tim Burton), best actor (Johnny Depp), and best supporting actress (Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway). Karger adds, “I’m told the studio’s major goal is a nomination in the best picture (comedy or musical) category at the Golden Globes… though the eye-popping film could end up factoring into some of the Academy’s technical races.”
• The Odds: Steve Pond shares the story behind one of the year’s most “imaginative and bracing film scores,” the one composed by Nine Inch Nails’s frontman Trent Reznor and producer Atticus Ross for “The Social Network.” Pond, a former music critic, writes that their effort captivates audiences with “piano-rooted, synthesizer-drenched work that is by turns plaintive and assaultive, and always adventurous and unconventional,” which was unlike anything on which the two had previously collaborated. He also reports that Reznor, upon being offered the job, initially said yes; then said no; then felt bad, so he called to apologize for saying no; and, at that point, learned that the job was still available and took it.
• Hollywood-Elsewhere: Jeff Wells issues a mea culpa regarding Roger Michell’s “Morning Glory,” the awards prospects of which he previously disparaged after finding its one-sheet to be lacking, now that he has actually seeing the film. He says it’s “much better than what Paramount’s marketing has so far indicated,” describing it as “a notch or two above [screenwriter Aline Brosh] McKenna’s ‘The Devil Wears Prada’” (referring to McKenna’s hit rom-com from 2006) and “close to ‘Broadcast News’-level” (referring to the classic 1987 comedy about people who work in television), while adding that it features “Harrison Ford’s best performance in years” — one that he feels even “has a shot at best supporting actor recognition.”
• YouTube: There’s nothing quite like a Stephen Holt interview, as demonstrated by this one with best supporting actor hopeful Geoffrey Rush (“The King’s Speech”), which was apparently conducted during September’s Toronto International Film Festival but was only posted online yesterday. Rush’s face is priceless throughout, not least after he says he’s been going through a “king period,” having appeared in both a play (“Exit the King“) and now a film with “king” in the title,” to which Holt responds, “I’m in my queen period, but it’s lasted an awful long time!”
• RogerEbert.com: Roger Ebert gives three out of four stars to the third and final installment of Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium Trilogy,” “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” Ebert makes a point of praising the performance of Noomi Rapace, who has portrayed Lisbeth Salander all three films, and calls the character a “transfixing heroine… formidably smart and deeply wounded… [and] too good a character to suspend after three films.” He adds, “My guess is there must be sequels [still to come, even if Larsson is found not to have written any himself].”
• Vancouver Sun: Kat Angus and Leah Collins celebrate the aforementioned “tattooed and pierced rebel girl” Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) as “easily one of the most compelling female characters of the past several years,” noting that “society may brand the Gothically inclined as misfits, but when it comes to movies, audiences just can’t get enough.” To prove their point, they share a gallery of “10 other movie Goths who have already won their hearts.” Among them: Allison (Ally Sheedy) in “The Breakfast Club” (1985), Edward Scissorhands (Johnny Depp) in “Edward Scissorhands” (1990), Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) in “Beetle Juice” (1988), and Wednesday Addams (Christina Ricci) in “The Addams Family” (1991).
• FSLC: The Film Society of Lincoln Center will pay tribute to legendary dancer/choreographer/filmmaker Stanley Donen, who is now 86, by screening a number of his most memorable works — including “On the Town” (1949), “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952), and “It’s Always Fair Weather” (1955), which he co-directed with Gene Kelly, and “Funny Face” (1957), “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” (1954), “Charade” (1963), “Arabesque” (1966), and “Two for the Road” (1967), which he independently directed — from November 3-10. On the first evening of the series, Donen will participate in a Q&A that is to be moderated by none other than director Mike Nichols.

Photo: “SNL” host Ellen Page (who was a recent Oscar nominee for “Juno“) and cast member Andy Samberg (portraying Diablo Cody, the screenwriter of the film) during the opening segment of the show’s March 1, 2008 episode. Credit: NBC.

• New York Press: Armond White, always the contrarian, trashes “The Social Network” — the most critically-acclaimed film of the year — for “sanctioning Harvard’s ‘masters of the universe’ mystique,” “[celebrating] moral confusion, social decline and empire building,” and “excusing Hollywood ruthlessness,” among other assorted ridiculous reasons. (Can somebody give this guy some Zoloft?)
• The Hollywood Reporter: Paul Bond reports that publicists for Disney, the studio that will be releasing “Secretariat,” have adopted the same promotional strategy employed by “The Blind Side” last year that led to huge box-office returns and Oscar nods for best picture and best actress: “going after what industry insiders like to call the ‘faith-based audience.’”
• The Playlist: Kevin Jagernauth obtains details about the soundtrack for the upcoming film “Country Strong,” which he refers to as “‘Crazy Heart’ 2.o,” and will feature songs performed by Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, and Leighton Meester. CDs will arrive in stores on October 26th, almost two months before the film goes into limited release.
• New York Times: Dave Kehr pays tribute to the director Arthur Penn, who passed on Tuesday (a day after his 88th birthday), and who “transformed the American film industry” through his film “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967), as well as other classics including “The Miracle Worker” (1962), “The Chase” (1966), and “Little Big Man” (1970).
• The Odds: Steve Pond learns that Harrison Ford has been selected as the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s 2011 recipient of the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film, which will be presented to the actor at a black-tie gala on November 19 — one week after the film “Morning Glory,” in which Ford stars, opens in theaters. Douglas quipped, “It’s always a pleasure to honor these young actors who do so well.”
• Gold Derby: Tom O’Neil shares the full list of Academy screenings scheduled for September and October, noting that “audience reaction is closely monitored by studio reps and award consultants, who count attendees and the number of walkouts, monitor applause (sudden loud clapping when the name of a director or costume designer appears on screen as the credits roll may mean a nomination is ahead), and eavesdrop on chatter in the lobby afterward.”
• Thompson on Hollywood: Anne Thompson confirms that the Academy’s submission deadline for all foreign language and short films (live action and animated) is 5pm PST this coming Friday, October 1. Each country is invited to enter one foreign language film for consderation, and over 55 have been submitted, thus far.
• Thompson on Hollywood: Sohpia Savage offers her take on the 30 most influential indie films from the past 30 years, as selected by 27 members of the board of directors of the Independent Film & Television Alliance on the occasion of the group’s 30th anniversary. The list includes “My Left Foot” (1989), “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), “Juno” (2007), and even “Twilight” (2008), but inexplicably excludes “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006).
• USA Today: Anthony Breznican describes the plans of Lucasfilm to convert all six “Star Wars” films into 3-D (under the oversight of John Knoll, visual effects supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic) and then begin re-releasing them in theaters in 2012 (in the order in which they take place, as opposed to the order in which they were released).
• The Hollywood Reporter: Carl DiOrio explains the debate within the film industry over whether/how to respond to audiences’ demand for “on-demand” without killing off retailers. One idea: “Those paying $25-$50 to watch a movie on their cable or satellite PPV service would qualify for a coupon redeemable at disc retailers for a free DVD of the same title.”
• Vulture: Ross Kenneth Urken writes that Chris Noth, aka “Mr. Big” in the “Sex and the City” TV show and films, showed up at the premiere of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s “Jack Goes Boating” and responded to a question about “Sex and the City” from New York magazine by saying: “It’s over. The franchise is dead. The press killed it. Your magazine fucking killed it.” To which I say, “Some labels are best left in the closet!”

Photo: Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford in “Morning Glory.” Credit: Paramount.