A few new pics have been released by Entertainment Weekly for the hotly anticipated The Hunger Games. Currently filming in North Carolina, The Hunger Games is based on the first book in the wildly popular series by Suzanne Collins and stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne.

The plot summary from author Collins: “In a not-too-distant future, North America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 13 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss’ young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.”

Directed by Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Pleasantville), the cast also includes Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Toby Jones and Wes Bentley among many others. The Hunger Games will be released March 23, 2012 in the UK, US & Canada.

“An offer too good to be true… it just might be”

Thanks to Hulu we have a new clip for director John Doyle’s feature debut, Main Street starring Colin Firth, Patricia Clarkson, Ellen Burstyn and Orlando Bloom.  Someone must have opened an archive somewhere because this is the second movie made last year that is finally seeing the light of day. This is really indicative of the state of independent film-making and the struggle to find financing and distribution when a movie with two Oscar winners and another nominee (and written by a man with two Oscars) sits on the shelf like a misfit toy.

Main Street was the last screenplay from the legendary Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Trip to Bountiful, Tender Mercies). The synopsis: Several residents of a small Southern city have their lives changed by the arrival of a stranger with a controversial plan to save their decaying hometown. In the midst of today’s challenging times, each of the colorful citizens of this close-knit North Carolina community will search for ways to reinvent themselves, their relationships and the very heart of their neighborhood.

From the little bit of footage we get here, John Doyle has the same sensibilities as another great storyteller, director John Sayles (I’ve always thought he and Foote should have collaborated), with a feel for small town America and  his hand on the hearts of its inhabitants.

Watch the trailer first:

Then watch the clip:

I have to say, both Colin Firth and Orlando Bloom have their accents down very well. I listen closely for things like that. Nothing can yank me out of the moment faster or make me feel like I’m watching a bad high school production quicker than a bad accent. (To that end, I must say that I have never had trouble watching Gwyneth Paltrow’s Emma, Possession or Sliding Doors, but I don’t think I can sit through One Day with Anne Hathaway.) Brits always seem to do American Southern very well.

Main Street also stars Amber Tamblyn, Andrew McCarthy, Margo Martindale, Isiah Whitlock, Jr. and Tom Wopat. It premiered last October at the Austin Film Festival and will get a limited theatrical run nationwide on September 9.

Levi Johnston’s Sister Says Bristol Palin’s Pregnancy Was No Accident, Was PLANNED

Levi Johnston may have shied from showing his Johnson in Playgirl, but his sister Mercede has bared all in Playboy and about the Palin family.

Mercede (shouldn’t there be an ‘s’ at the end of her freaking name?) is coming out with some wild accusations that her brother Levi didn’t like Bristol to drink because it made her more promiscuous and also that when Bristol found out she was pregnant with their son Tripp she texted Levi with “”Ever since the moment I found out I was pregnant, I prayed to God you weren’t the father.”

She would have to be sleeping with others if she did text that. The question is did she text that? But the most shocking (to me) revelation of all is that this pregnancy was no accident:

“Bristol’s pregnancy wasn’t . . . an accident. She and Levi planned it. They were trying to conceive for months.”

Teens planning a pregnancy for months is just so shocking to me. I can’t wrap my head around that. Who has the desire to have children in their teens? She also claims that Bristol’s brother, 22 year old Track Plain did drugs and didn’t want to go into the Army:

“He did OxyContin and mostly cocaine. He didn’t choose to go into the Army; he went there because his mom made him, to get him out of the way so when she was at the convention they wouldn’t know he does drugs and would think he was a patriot.”

She also claims she can’t get a job in their small town of Alaska because of the Palins. After this Playboy interview that’s pretty much a given, isn’t it?

YAY, a new clip from Burke & Hare! It seems forever ago that I first heard about director John Landis’ new black comedy. I’d almost forgotten about it. It opened in the UK nearly a year ago. Hell, everyone in the world, including Kazakhstan, got it before the US.

I find that truly mystifying. Not only is it directed by the man responsible for American Werewolf in London, Blues Brothers, Trading Places, Animal House and the wildly underrated Into the Night, but it’s his first feature film since 1998. Granted, they haven’t all been gems, but I’ll wager even the clunkers like Three Amigos or Blues Brothers 2000 hold at least some sentimental attachment.

Did the producers or distributors, once they had paid for the flick, reason that the collected oeuvre of John Landis no longer holds any allure in America? I find that difficult to believe. What about Simon Pegg? Simon Pegg as a grave robber in 19th century Scotland? Simon Pegg as a grave robber in 19th century Scotland aided and abetted by Andy Serkis? Simon Pegg hot right now. JJ Abrams cast him in Star Trek and I’m sure he’ll be back for the sequel. Tom Cruise got him a gig in Missions Impossible 3 and 4. And what red blooded male between the ages of 20 and 30 does not have a copy of Shaun of the Dead and/or Hot Fuzz in their dvd collections? Is it the absence of Nick Frost that had them hesitant over a US release?  Who doesn’t love Andy Serkis? Andy Serkis. You know, Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy andThe Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, soon to be Capt. Haddock in Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin. Ohhh I get it. You don’t actually see Andy Serkis in those films. How about Peter Jackson’s King Kong? Sure, he was Kong, but he also appeared as real live human.

Okay, if that trifecta wasn’t enough, Burke and Hare also has the irresistibly adorable Isla Fisher (Confessions of a Shopaholic, Wedding Crashers), seen in the new clip gobsmacking the shite out of Simon Pegg, not to mention Tom Wilkinson, Tim Curry, Hugh Bonneville, Stephen Merchant, Jenny Agutter (a nod to American Werewolf in London no doubt), Christopher Lee and Landis’ signature directors cameos by Costa-Gavras, Michael Winner and Ray Harryhausen. I think all of that sounds like much less of a risk than some of the flatulence the did pass through theaters last year. Knight and Day or Sex and the City 2 anyone? In any case, thank you IFC Films for stepping up.

Burke and Hare is based on the true story of two 19th century grave robbers who find a lucrative business providing cadavers for an Edinburgh medical school and resort to murder to keep up with the demand. Comedy gold! Anyway, it will finally make it to America on September 9, 2011.

New Trailer for Roland Emmerich’s Anonymous!

“We’ve all been played”

Roland Emmerich, director of such loud and aggressive, special effects laden fare as 2012, 10,000 BC, The Day After Tomorrow, The Patriot, Godzilla, Independence Day, Stargate and Universal Soldier, has done a 180 with his new film, Anonymous. Described as a political thriller, (the words that may have gotten Emmerich to sign on for the job) set against the backdrop of the rebellion front by the Earl of Essex against Queen Elizabeth I and posits the theory that it was not William Shakespeare, but Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford who penned his plays. There is, I must add, a lot of CGI in this one, used to create the world of Elizabethan England, but I don’t think there are any explosions or aliens.

The rumor that Shakespeare was not responsible for the works attributed to him is not new. Christopher Marlowe, Sir Francis Bacon, Thomas Kyd, and Ben Jonson are the names most commonly bandied about by scholars who oppose the notion that Shakespeare is responsible for his work. In recent years another contemporary, Edward de Vere, a patron of the arts, poet and dramatist in his own right, has become the strongest candidate.

Official synopsis: “Set in the political snake-pit of Elizabethan England​, Anonymous speculates on an issue that has for centuries intrigued academics and brilliant minds ranging from Mark Twain​ and Charles Dickens to Henry James and Sigmund Freud​, namely: who was the author of the plays credited to William Shakespeare​? Experts have debated, books have been written, and scholars have devoted their lives to protecting or debunking theories surrounding the authorship of the most renowned works in English literature. Anonymous poses one possible answer, focusing on a time when cloak-and-dagger political intrigue, illicit romances in the Royal Court, and the schemes of greedy nobles hungry for the power of the throne were exposed in the most unlikely of places: the London stage.”

I am so in. The only way this could be any more up my alley is if it starred Gerard Butler, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Clive Owen and Kevin McKidd. (With Special Guest Star: Jason Momoa as Caliban.)  That being only a pipe dream, the film does sport some pretty fine British thespians (like there’s any other kind. pffft): Rhys Ifans, Rafe Spall, David Thewlis, Derek Jacobi, Mark Rylance, (an unrecognizable) Jamie Campbell-Bower, Joely Richardson and her preternaturally talented mother, Vanessa Redgrave.

Anonymous will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival before opening in Canada on 30 September and October 28 in the US & the UK…say…what’s up with that, eh?

Nicki Minaj was doing her thing on Good Morning America when one of her boobs popped out of her outfit giving her the mother of all wardrobe malfunctions because it seemed like she didn’t notice it for a while. Nice nip slip though. She has lovely breasts.

Not only was she singing, dancing and having major nip slip, but getting down on a huge chicken leg which is pretty interesting given Burger King is sponsoring the event. Those pictures are hysterical. Once you’ve seen a nip you’ve seen them all, but her biting into that chicken leg is PRICELESS.

Photos: WENN