January 26, 2006

Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, producers of "Hairspray" and the Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning Best Picture "Chicago," announced Wednesday Jan 25th that New Line Cinema has launched a nationwide casting search to fill three roles in its upcoming feature film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical "Hairspray."

The casting search will be opened beginning from Feb 4th with an open call audition held in Atlanta on the campus of Georgia State University. Casting agents will on Feb. 11th hold an open call in New York at the Hilton Theatre Rehearsal Studios and the search will come to Chicago on Feb. 18th at the Chicago Academy of Arts.

Girls are everywhere when the bad boys of '80s heavy metal band Motley Crue received the 2,301st star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Wednesday January 25th, 2006.

Expressing his joy bassist Nikki Sixx told an estimated 600 screaming fans "We're across the street from the Erotica Museum and Frederick's of Hollywood. This is a perfect place for us to be."

Denzel Washington and Jim Caviezel are joined by Adam Goldberg for their next film project "Deja Vu," which Tony Scott will direct.

It is an action adventure drama centers on an FBI agent (Washington) who travels back in time to save a woman from a murder and falls in love with her in the process.

Done with his late project "The Amityville Horror," Andrew Douglas has next been slated to direct the upcoming Screen Gems' horror film "Priest." With Mike De Luca, Sam Raimi, Josh Donen, and Mitchell Peck on board to produce, production of the film is scheduled to start this summer.

"Priest" actually is based on Tokyopop's graphic novel created by Min-Woo Hyung with its script written by Cory Goodman. The story is a vampire Western that concerns a warrior priest who disobeys church law by teaming with a young sheriff and a priestess to track down a band of renegade vampires who have kidnapped his niece.

Music group Aerosmith has released a confirmation to extend its "Rockin' the Joint Tour." Greater than that, for the next phase of the tour which begins on March 2nd later this year in Hollywood, Florida they will be joined by Cheap Trick.

By now on, Aerosmith is wrapping up the first leg of their tour with Lenny Kravitz, which concludes Feb. 24 in Anaheim, California. For a complete "Rockin' the Joint Tour" dates click on the band's official site.

Fox 2000 is a "Demon Keeper." Not in real meaning, but the studio has acquired the rights to the upcoming Royce Buckingham young adult novel for a live-action film for which AEIAEI's Ken Atchity and ChiChi-Li Wong have been tapped to direct.

The story focuses on a Seattle teen who inherits a house filled with mischievous demons. The youth has to keep his charges in the house and thwart the Thin Man, a creepy character who wants to free and exploit them for evil purposes.

Jamie Foxx's "Unpredictable" climbing back to No. 1 position on the US album charts Wednesday Jan 25th, sold another 97,000 copies, a mere 2,000 copies above Mary J. Blige's latest effort "The Breakthrough" which falls to No. 2 with 95,000 CDs sold.

Eminem's hits compilation "Curtain Call" ups one place to No. 3 with 74,000 units. Carrie Underwood's "Some Hearts" downs one to No. 4 with 73,000 units. At No. 5 is Johnny Cash's "The Legend of Johnny Cash" which rebounds five places from last week's position.

A woman of many accomplishments, mothering is maybe the only thing that Jennifer Lopez is longing for but has yet accomplished. Though, she's close to that. The star has recently been spotted visiting a baby clinic while also in an extravagant baby wear shop with his third husband, Marc Anthony, companion.

The couple reportedly was seen stocking up on baby supplies. Anthony even was spotted buying a Guys Infant Gear nappy bag for $120 at Fred Segal in Los Angeles. An onlooker tells website Msnbc.com, "He said something that made it pretty clear that it wasn't a gift - that he intended to use it."

Amidst the long circulating rumors on her wedding plan with singer Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman insists they are simply enjoying a "nice friendship." A publicist for the actress Wendy Day says, "Clearly they are enjoy a nice friendship together. But Nicole's personal life is her personal life and I have no further knowledge of their friendship."

Kidman and Urban have both been romantically linked since July last year, but either one refused to confirm the nature of their relationship. And there they were spending Thanksgiving and Christmas together in Urban's adopted hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, which prompted rumors on their preparing to get married, that's for everybody to know.

Amber Tamblyn, Arielle Kebbel, and Teresa Palmer are all joining Sarah Michelle Gellar to star in the upcoming Columbia Pictures' project titled "The Grudge 2." In the meantime, director Takashi Shimizu, writer Stephen Susco, and producers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Taka Ichise are all back on board.

A drama horror mystery flick, "The Grudge 2" centers its story on Tamblyn's role, the younger sister of Gellar, who returns long enough to pass on the movie's supernatural curse. The sequel delves into the secrets behind the grudge's wrath and introduces a seemingly unrelated host of new characters who find themselves connected by the curse.

It was announced January 24th, 2006 that Miramax Films has acquired the North American rights to the Hart Sharp Entertainment and IFC Films co-production, "The Night Listener." The flick, directed and co-written by Patrick Stettner, is said to be of drama mystery thriller genre.

"Night Listener" tackles the narrative of Armistead Maupin's most haunting page-turner, in which popular public radio storyteller Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams) develops an intense phone relationship with a young listener named Pete (Rory Culkin) and the social worker who rescued him from a life of abuse (Toni Collette). But Gabriel soon comes to the startling realization that it is quite possible that neither the boy nor his painful account of his childhood really exist.

Production Weekly brings the news that Taryn Manning and Wes Bentley will topline the indie comedy "Weirdsville." Directed by Allan Moyle, the script of the film was written by Willem Wenneker.

The story is set in the small prairie-town of Weedsville, crammed with freaky oddballs, strange occurrences, and not a lot of ambition. Dexter and Royce are your typical disaffected slackers. Chances are they would have continued to drift through life in a dope-filled haze if Matilda, Royce's girlfriend, hadn't O.D.'d on their stash.

The Oscars opened for public, enjoy your time. For the first time ever this year's Oscar statuettes will be showcased in the window of Times Square Studios in New York City beginning Jan 23rd to February 1st later this year.

Opened for window viewing at Broadway and West 44th Street, New Yorkers can enjoy the so-called "Meet the Oscars: The 50 Golden Statuettes" exhibition from 7 a.m. to midnight daily.