BOP Daily News
April 14, 2004
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.
|
Revolution Studios’ upcoming holiday release Skipping Christmas is being forced into a title change after the MPAA decided the title sounded too much like DreamWorks’ holiday release, Surviving Christmas. Bosses at Revolution are reportedly brainstorming furiously after being denied the next most obvious choice, John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas. No reason was given for not allowing the studio to put the name of the author on whose novel the film is based in the title, although it’s unlikely to make any more sense than forcing the name change in the first place. We realize that the MPAA may have trouble distinguishing between “surviving” and “skipping”, given the median age of its members is about 103, but maybe Jack “Boom Boom” Valenti should turn up his hearing aid and a get stronger prescription for his glasses before imposing such mystifying conditions on the release of films. Trying to follow what passes for the logic behind the ratings system is burden enough.
|
|
|
|
|
Val Kilmer must have another movie coming out soon, since he is once again trying to put the kibosh on his long-standing reputation of being difficult to work with. According to Kilmer, he has been unfairly branded with this epithet because journalists "can't figure [him] out". According to Kilmer, a friend of his - now that’s got to be a job-and-a-half - recently pointed out that Kilmer is the only actor the friend could think of that “Hollywood hadn't figured out yet”, and Kilmer believes this may be why he’s been tagged as a troublemaker. Kilmer went on to proclaim, “If I keep standing up and saying that I'm not the most hated man in Hollywood or whatever, then it sounds like I have something to hide, but I've got nothing to hide”, and that he doesn’t think the people who like his films have been affected by the negative publicity. So, wait a minute; Kilmer not only has a friend, but there are people out there who actually like his films? Imagine that.
|
|
|
|
Seems the Paramount suits aren’t too happy with Tom Cruise’s current physical appearance, which has caused a bit of a power struggle between Hollywood heavy-hitters. The studio reportedly designed a diet plan for the Mission: Impossible star to embark upon before shooting for the upcoming third movie in the franchise, with one source explaining Paramount was concerned about Cruise “looking right” in the big-budget action film. Cruise, on the other hand, doesn’t feel he needs to lose weight, and will follow his own fitness regimen. The source indicated that Cruise doesn’t believe he’s “chubby”, given that preparations for The Last Samurai built “muscle on muscle”, perhaps explaining why the suits thought he might need a diet. Rumors that Marlon Brando started down the road to his current physical condition using the same explanation were being discounted at press time.
|
|
|
|
"That's not a bit like Cagney."
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.
|
|
|
|
