BOP Daily News
October 29, 2003
The spirit of BOP News lives on in
This is So Last Week,
our pop culture week-in-review,
presented in a pleasing quiz form.
|
The folks at Fox News Channel are acting up again, this time taking issue with one of their own. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, revealed in a recent interview that the Powers That Be over at Fox News threatened to sue his show over a parody of the network. This comes on the heels of a highly-publicized lawsuit brought by the hyper-sensitive folks at Fox News against Al Franken’s book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, that was thrown out of court by the judge for being a waste of everybody’s time. Groening refused to cut the segment, figuring - quite rightly, it turned out - that Rupert Murdoch wouldn’t let Fox News Channel sue Fox Broadcast Network, which of course carries The Simpsons. Apparently, however, Fox News has informed Groening that in the future, cartoon series will not be allowed to include a news crawl along the bottom of the screen, as it might "confuse the viewers." Which gives you a pretty good idea of the Fox News execs’ opinion of the IQ level of their viewers.
|
|
|
|
|
A musical version of All About Eve? Apparently. According to reports, Barbra Streisand is going to come out of - her 19th, is it? - retirement to star as Margo Channing in the stage adaptation of the Oscar-winning 1950 film about ambition and intrigue on the Great White Way. Several young stars are being touted as Margo’s conniving assistant, Eve Harrington, including Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, but according to insiders, Jessica Simpson is currently the odds-on favorite. Says one source, "Jessica radiates innocence. You wouldn't suspect her of being a slut and a back-stabber." You would if you saw her TV show.
|
|
|
|
More fallout from movies recently abandoned by studios. Disney has responded to reports that it had shelved Ben Affleck’s upcoming film Ghosts of Girlfriends Past due to the negative publicity over Affleck’s on-again/off-again engagement to J-Lo and the oh-so-much-worse-than dismal performance of the pair’s film Gigli. The studio issued a statement that, contrary to earlier reports, the movie had not been canceled but was merely being “delayed” due to “casting issues”. However, the statement did not indicate when, or even if, the film will go forward, saying only "the fate of this movie is uncertain." This is known as the Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You Clause.
|
|
|
|
|
Spike Lee is unhappy again, this time with Rosario Dawson. Seems the actress had been cast in Lee’s upcoming film She Hate Me, but dropped out to take a role in Oliver Stone’s Alexander after Lee refused to change the scheduled start date of the film. Dawson is apparently just the latest person to exit the project, as Jeffrey Wright and rapper Mos Def also reportedly opted out of the film after clashing with Lee. According to reports, Lee is furious that Dawson has deserted his film, reportedly telling the star, “I discovered you! I put you on the map! How dare you do Alexander over my movie!' " Uh, Spike? It’s called career advancement.
|
|
|
|
One might say William H. Macy just can’t get no respect. The hangdog star thought censors would make cuts in his upcoming film The Cooler, which features a rather violent sequence in which co-star Alec Baldwin beats up a character with a lead pipe. Instead, the censors, much to Macy’s dismay, scissored the love scene with his onscreen paramour, Maria Bello, reportedly because it showed too much pubic hair. Macy has struck back at the censoring of his first on-screen love scene, pointing out, as critics have long lamented, that extreme violence seems to be acceptable in America but lovemaking is not, stating, “Somebody’s got to stand up and say, ‘Sex is good’.” And while we here at BOP generally agree with that sentiment, in this particular case, we’d say the censors did a good thing.
|
|
|
|
"While you wait, you can read my column. It'll make minutes fly like hours."
Box Office Prophets offers quality, reliable news about the entertainment industry. BOP is also entertaining. To that end, please be advised that some content in this column is intended to be humorous and should not be considered factual.
|
|
|
|
