Vavavavoom! Emma Stone, looking like Jessica Rabbit come to life, chats with co-star Sean Penn on the set of  Ruben Fleischer's Gangster Squad with costar Sean Penn. We’ve seen Emma as Grace Faraday before, but this is our first look at Penn as gangster Mickey Cohen. Grace is Mickey’s ‘moll’ as well as the object of Sgt. Jerry Wooters’ affection. Wooters is played by Ryan Gosling.

Gangster Squad is filming in LA using a lot of the actual locations mentioned in LA Times staff writer Paul Lieberman's series of articles "Tales of the Gangster Squad". Here's the Warner Brothers synopsis: "Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and – if he has his way – every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with not only his own paid goons, but also the protection of the police and the politicians who are under his control. It's enough to intimidate even the bravest street-hardened cop… except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgts. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters who come together to try to tear Cohen's world apart."

The movie also stars Robert Patrick (Off. Max Kennard), Michael Pena (Navidad Ramirez, Kennard's partner), Giovanni Ribisi (whose death in Saving Private Ryan still reduces me to tears. He plays electronics expert Conway Keeler) and Anthony Mackie (Off. Coleman Harris). The release dates for Gangster Squad have been moved up from 2013 to October 19, 2012 in the US and 9 November in the UK. Woot! 

Gotta love the French. They certainly don’t shy away from the joys of the flesh. We have a new poster for Steve McQueen’s Shame…excuse me while I stare at it for a few hours…Seriously, I don’t think I have to tell you why I like this one so much. I know I’ve see Michael Fassbender’s torso before (and that we’ll see much, much more of him in the actual film. Not to mention I think it’s the well placed hand that does me in.). His manly, muscled torso was on full display throughout 300, the film that brought him to my attention back in 2007. It was also on display in 2008’s Hunger, the film that brought him to the attention of most of the film-making world and made them sit up and take notice.  It was, of course, in no way, shape or form attractive or sexy in that film. Hunger is about Irish militant Bobby Sands as he wasted away in prison on a hunger strike to protest conditions (among other things.)

This brings me to my next bit of news. According to Deadline, Fassbender is being pursued by Warner Bros. to take the lead in Londongrad about former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned with polonium-210 back in 2006. As he lay dying in a London hospital, Litvinenko publicly accused then-Russian president Vladimir Putin. Actually the official description is “wasting away” in a hospital bed. While this could well be a juicy part for Fassbender, and I’m sure the producers are aiming for an actor of his caliber, it’s my hope they aren’t interested merely because they saw him waste away in Hunger. Do we really need to watch him once again whittle away at his already sparse frame? Is it even healthy? I doubt it. But then again, we don’t even know if he’s been approached yet. Warners chummed the waters with this little tidbit and the internet pounced. Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) is supposedly in talks to direct.

Shame begins a limited release on December 2 in the US and opens in the UK on 13 January.

TV Journalist and author Andy Rooney 92, died last night at a New York City hospital CBS is reporting. He retired from 60 minutes on October 2 after spending 33 years on television. A couple of weeks later he underwent a minor surgery procedure but suffered serious complications.

“Andy always said he wanted to work until the day he died, and he managed to do it, save the last few weeks in the hospital,” said his “60 Minutes” colleague, correspondent Steve Kroft.

He was married to his wife Marguerite Howard  for 62 years before her death in 2004. The couple had 4 children together. 

Our sincere thoughts and prayers to his family and friends at this time.

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The Muppets will be here in less than three weeks and Disney is preparing the way by dropping little treats, like these two Piggy-centric clips, every few days.

In the first, Miss Piggy takes a meeting with “Muppet Man”. Short, sweeter than the donuts on Piggy’s desk, with a soft Muppet-y filling…

In the second clip, called “Showdown”, the inimitable Miss Piggy meets her “replacement”. I can only assume this is because she refused the offer made by “Muppet Man” in the first clip.

Of course the offer is to join, Walter, Kermit, Fozzie and the gang, along with humans Mary (Amy Adams) and Gary (Jason Segel), who are going to put on a show in order to save their old theater from billionaire oil tycoon, Tex Richman (Chris Cooper). Dun dun dun…

The Muppets opens November 23 in the US and Canada and 10 February in the UK.

Do you love the Harold and Kumar films? Word has it that Lionsgate is shopping around an animated television series for the hit franchise. Today A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas 3D hits theatres and what better time to shop a television series than while the iron is hot?

The stars of the show John Cho (who I am very attracted to, oink and loved him in Flash Forward) and Kal Penn (who I'm loving on How I Met Your Mother) are on board to be the voices of the animated series. Can you imagine if this series has a long run and how rich these two can get off of this show?

The writers of the film franchise, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg are also going to be writing the series. Ca-ching.

Have you watched the Harold & Kumar movies? Would you watch an animated series?

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Photo: Apega/WENN

Here’s the first official image of Bill Murray as the 32nd President of the United States . Murray appears as President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Roger Michell’s Hyde Park on Hudson, which  chronicles a weekend in 1939 when King George VI  became the first British Monarch to formally visit the U.S.  (King George VI was featured last year in The King's Speech, but here he's played not by Colin Firth, but by Samuel West (Howard’s End, Persuasion, Van Helsing).  The main plot, however, revolves around FDR’s relationship with his cousin.

Synopsis: The story of the love affair between FDR and his distant cousin Margaret Stuckley (Laura Linney), centered around the weekend in 1939 when the King and Queen of the United Kingdom visited upstate New York.

Roger Michell directed one of my very favorite movies, Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds, so I’m always curious about his films. He directed the very popular (but pedestrian) Notting Hill  as well as the underrated Changing Lanes with Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson and the equally underestimated Morning Glory with Rachel McAdams, Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford.  The rest of the cast here includes Olivia Williams as Eleanor Roosevelt, and Olivia Coleman (Hot Fuzz, Tyrannosaur) as Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mum). Hyde Park on Hudson is scheduled for a 2012 UK release. More on that later.