There are a couple of high brow releases as well as a one so low as to be considered “basement” brow in this week’s dvd/blu-ray release round up. Hey, something for everybody!

Downton Abbey, the hugely popular BBC import currently running in its second season on PBS, has already cropped up on dvd. While anyone interested in watching Downton Abbey already knows about the show and is probably religiously watching, you may not know that you can get the complete season 2 in its original, uncut UK edition, not to mention you can get it when there are still two more episodes left to air! (That should make Patton Oswalt deliriously happy!)

The three disc set includes the 2011 Christmas Special!

Try to avoid the stampede to Target to pick up your copy of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – part 1. For all of you longing for dvd in order to sit in the privacy of your darkened living room to witness the marriage of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, tissues at the ready, your wait is over. Actually, this title will be released on Saturday February 11, but I figured you’d want the extra notice to get your track shoes one.

Special Features:

-Go behind the scenes with a captivating 6-PART MAKING-OF DOCUMENTARY; relive the memories with Edward & Bella's personal WEDDING VIDEO; get a glimpse into JACOB'S DESTINY; watch your favorite scenes over and over in EDWARD FAST FORWARD and JACOB FAST FORWARD; plus an AUDIO COMMENTARY with Director Bill Condon

Whether or not you believe its premise, Anonymous makes for a good costume drama. (The costumes have been nominated for an Academy Award.) It also features a rare appearance of both Vanessa Redgrave and her daughter Joely Richardson in the same film. The each play Queen Elizabeth I at different stages of her life.

Set in the political snake-pit of Elizabethan England, Anonymous speculates on an issue that has for centuries intrigued academics and brilliant minds… who was the author of the plays credited to William Shakespeare? 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 were exposed in the most unlikely of places: the London stage.

Anonymous stars Rhys Ifans, Joely Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, David Thewlis and Xavier Samuel.

Special Features:

-Audio Commentary: Director Roland Emmerich and Writer John Orloff deliver a steady and enlightening commentary, speaking on the importance of the film's modern-day open, the necessity of fiction in the portrayal of supposed historical fact, dramatic licenses in the film, the work of the cast and crew, the specifics behind crafting and shooting various scenes, the purpose of the film's dramatic elements, the costuming, technical details of the digital photography, set design, special effects, and much more. This is a good companion track that fans should enjoy.

-Deleted Scenes (1080p, 2:54): "Use Your Imagination Robert," Ben Visits the Earl of Oxford, and Funeral Scenes.

-Extended Scenes (1080p, 3:29): Tennis Match and The Mermaids Tavern.

-More Than Special Effects (1080p, 13:08): A detailed look at the film's digital and practical recreations of 16th century locations.

-Who is the Real William Shakespeare? (1080p, 10:39): Cast and crew discuss the evidence presented in the movie that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare.

-Speak the Speech… (1080p, 16:14): A detailed look at casting the film's critical roles.

The Rebound is a romantic comedy from Bart Freundlich (The Myth of Fingerprints) that was filmed back in early 2009, but was a victim of The Film Department’s untimely demise. It has already been released theatrically all over the world, but is going straight to dvd and blu-ray in the US. It stars Catherine Zeta Jones as a recent divorce who becomes involved with her kids’ caregiver, the much younger Justin Bartha.

Official Synopsis:

"Upon discovering her husband's infidelity, Sandy (Zeta-Jones) and her two kids move from the suburbs to pursue a new life in the big city. There she meets Aram (Bartha), a local coffee shop employee whose wife only married him as a means to getting her green card. The two strike up a friendship which eventually evolves into something more. But it isn't long before they're faced with the big question – 'Is this real or just a rebound?'"

Special Features:

-Cast and crew interviews

A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas 3D stars John Cho and Kal Penn returning for their third outing as the titular Harold and Kumar.

Six years have elapsed since Guantanemo Bay, leaving Harold and Kumar estranged from one another with very different families, friends and lives. But when Kumar arrives on Harold's doorstep during the holiday season with a mysterious package in hand, he inadvertently burns down Harold's father-in-law's beloved Christmas tree. To fix the problem, Harold and Kumar embark on a mission through New York City to find the perfect Christmas tree, once again stumbling into trouble at every single turn.

Special Features:

-Extended Cut: The 3D Blu-ray edition features 3D and 2D presentations of the 90-minute theatrical cut of the film and a 2D presentation of its 96-minute extended cut. The biggest downside? Not only is the extended cut not available in 3D, its 2D presentation doesn't offer a lossless audio option. Just a standard (but serviceable) 448kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track.

-Through the Haze with Tom Lennon (HD, 9 minutes): "World Famous Actor and Comedian" Thomas Lennon hosts … hilarious, uncensored, tongue-in-cheek EPK shorts: "I'm Doing a Puff Piece Over Here," "I Hate Drugs," "F#*@ You, Charles Dickens," "I'm Just Brainstorming Here," "The Marshmallow Man" and "19th Greatest Christmas Story Ever Told." I watched them twice, and I'll probably watch them anytime I revisit A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas. Good stuff.

-Title (HD, 4 minutes): Community may have beaten them to the punch bowl by a full year, but Harold & Kumar's Christmas claymation sequence still delivers. Take a brief look at its creation, complete with a PiP comparison between its animated storyboard reel and the final scene. At four minutes, though, it's too short.

-Deleted Scenes (HD, 4 minutes): A small, inconsequential collection of deleted scenes. There are a few laughs to be had, but just a few.

Disney’s Lady and the Tramp is making its first appearance on dvd and blu-ray in a Diamond Edition and as with most classic Disney titles, will only be around for a limited time. Lady and the Tramp is the “love” story of  a cute, classy "Lady" cocker spaniel who escapes from her confining owner and falls for an alley dog, known as the "Tramp", when he rescues her from some mean dogs out on the streets. Surely you’re familiar with the “spaghetti scene”?

Special Features:

-Disc Introduction by Diane Disney Miller (HD, 2 minutes): Walt Disney's daughter briefly touches on her father's work, his love of animals, and his love of Lady and the Tramp; as Miller recalls, one of the legendary filmmaker's personal favorites.

-Audio Commentary: Inside Walt's Story Meetings: Time travel, dear readers. Time travel. "Inside Walt's Story Meetings" is an audio track featuring a talented group of voice actors delivering a dramatic recreation of Walt Disney's story meetings. With archive transcripts in hand and clever editing in tow, it's as close to a filmmakers' audio commentary as you can get on a film like this, and fans and animation enthusiasts will no doubt enjoy listening to Disney and his team develop, write and animate Lady and the Tramp.

-Disney Second Screen, Featuring "Inside Walt's Story Meetings" (HD): Download Disney's Second Screen app to your iPad or PC, sync the Lady and the Tramp Blu-ray with the app, and enjoy an interactive experience complete with behind-the-scenes materials, family activities, art and storyboard galleries, and more. It's a nice addition to the release, even if everyone isn't interested in taking advantage of it.

-Diane Disney Miller: Remembering Dad (HD, 8 minutes): Miller shares memories and stories about her father's life, career and legacy. Honestly, I wish this one was much longer. Every little tidbit that brings Walt Disney to life is appreciated, as it only enriches his contributions to the world of animation.

-Deleted Scenes (HD, 19 minutes): Though presented via storyboards, three deleted scenes — "Introduction of Boris," "Waiting for Baby" and "Dog Show" — are available for the curious completists among you.

-Never Recorded Song: "I'm Free as the Breeze" (HD, 2 minutes): While Lady and the Tramp was released in 1955, development began as early as 1936. "I'm Free as the Breeze," written in 1946 by Ray Gilbert and composed by Eliot Daniel, features Tramp explaining his life philosophy. It was cut when it was decided Tramp wouldn't be a singing dog.

-Classic DVD Bonus Features (SD, 157 minutes): The "Classic DVD" section of the disc includes almost all of the previously released DVD edition's extras, including the seven-part, 53-minute "Lady's Pedigree: The Making of Lady and the Tramp" (much of which is comprised of vintage featurettes with Walt Disney himself), "Finding Lady: The Art of the Storyboard," "Original 1943 Storyboard Version of the Film" (in truth a 12-minute storyboard treatment), "The Siamese Cat Song: Finding a Voice for the Cats," "PuppyPedia: Going to the Dogs" (designed strictly for kids), a "Bella Notte Music Video," three "Theatrical Trailers," four lengthy "Excerpts from Disneyland TV Shows" and two more "Deleted Scenes." In other words, most everything you would have missed if Disney hadn't put it all on the disc. The only downside? It's all presented in standard definition.

-Sneak Peeks (HD, 10:58 minutes): Trailers and previews for Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, Cinderella, Brave, Chimpanzee, The Aristocats, Tinker Bell: Secret of the Wings, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3, ABC's The Chew, Disney Channel's Shake It Up and Mary Poppins: The Hit Broadway Musical round out the package.

We've also got a heads up on future release. Roman Polanski's Carnage starring three Oscar winners and a nominee in the form of Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly comes to dvd ad blu-ray on March 20.

The film is based on Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winning play, "The God of Carnage" and it's the story of two boys whose playground tussle leads to each child's parents taking on the other in "verbal warfare."

Special Features:

-Actors' Notes

-An Evening with John C. Reilly & Christoph Waltz

-On the Red Carpet

Stay connected with us! Follow us on Twitter, fan us on Facebook, grab our RSS feed, or subscribe to us via a News Reader. We would love to hear from you.

G’Day USA is a program promoting commerce and cross-cultural ties between the US and Australia. It celebrates Australia Week every year (although it’s more than two weeks. This year it runs January 11-29) The highlight is the Black Tie Gala which serves as the LA Australia Week publicity anchor. It commemorates high profile individuals in the entertainment industry for significant contributions in their fields and for excellence in promoting Australia in the US. Last night nearly 1,000 guests enjoyed the Aussie food and wine and watched Kate Winslet present an award to her Mildred Pierce costar, Guy Pearce.

Kate did not walk the red carpet, so no pics of her with Ned Rocknroll. (He may be a great guy, but really, Kate? How are we to take him seriously? How do YOU take him seriously?) Oh well, she looked fabulous and I can’t wait to see what she’s wearing tonight for the Golden Globes (where I know Ned will be with her at the table and the cameras will pan there often)

Not a True Blood fan, but Ryan Kwanten looked adorable in that blood-red, crushed velvet bowtie.

Guy Pearce and his wife Kate have been married for nearly fifteen years. I’ve read many interviews where he unabashedly gushes about her and their sex life. I love the way he’s looking at her in one of the pics below. And check out her back tatt! (And how clever is she that she matched her dress and her clutch to the colors?) Danny Huston (Robin Hood, 2005’s The Proposition with Guy Pearce) and Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace, Centurion) are a good looking couple (I wasn’t even aware that they were, but what do I know? Huston looks like someone just handed him the keys to the kingdom), as are Simon Baker (I want his glasses!) and his wife of more than thirteen years – they’ve been together twenty-, actress Rebecca Rigg.  (Drives me nuts when someone’s S.O. gets identified only as “guest”. Do your frickin’ homework professional news agencies!) The same cannot be said about John Travolta and his beard…I mean wife Kelly Preston. WTF has Travolta done to himself? He looks like a cartoon version and the expression on Kelly’s face looks like she agrees.

Who is Cody Simpson and why should I care? He’s put me right off of my Tresor Paris bracelet, I can tell you that much. Apparently Paul “Crocodile Dundee” Hogan and Linda Kozlowski are still happening (although she’s had so much work done she’s practically unrecognizable.)

Also in attendance, Alex O’Loughlin, Teresa Palmer, Yvonne Strahovski, Liam McIntyre (the new Starz Spartacus), Delta Goodrem (where was Nick Jonas?), Jacki Weaver and Miranda Kerr (looking gorgeous but sans Orlando Bloom who was across town at the Art of Elysium event).

No Australian event would, apparently, be complete without Air Supply (another of the night’s honorees) and a performance by Olivia Newton John.

Variety is reporting that Kate Winslet has signed on to star in Kenneth Branagh’s  The Potato Pie Society, an adaptation of “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

The book’s synopsis:

“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet (Winslet) begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

Shooting is set to begin in March on the film, which Branagh has described as "a beautiful romance, very touching and uplifting.”

Winslet previously played Ophelia to Branagh’s Hamlet in the latter’s acclaimed 1996 reimagining (and my very favorite film version of Shakespeare’s play). The Potato Pie Society has a script by Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex, Marley& Me, The Other Woman) and will be released by 20^th Century Fox.  Enjoy the pics of Kate and Kenneth from Hamlet!

Yesterday was all about Kate Winslet as translucent English Rose and her ad campaign for St. John’s. The tabs and the internet have been buzzing with speculation about the Golden Globes and what and who Kate will wear on the red carpet, what her makeup and hair will look like, what jewels will adorn her. It’s kind of nice to get this clip from Roman Polanski’s Carnage (for which she’s received one of her two Globe nominations this year). In the clip, Winslet’s Nancy Cowan, in sharp contrast to the tight-lipped, buttoned up professional (as evidenced by her hair if nothing else) that we’ve seen in the other clips and trailers, is slightly disheveled, drunk and planning to get drunker.

Besides Winslet’s slurred rambling, a highlight is John C. Reilly’s Michael Longstreet, one half of the other couple in whose home Winslet is doing the drinking. His reaction to this relative stranger railing against his wife is hilarious.

As I’m sure you know by now, Carnage is based on the awarding winning play “God of Carnage” by Yasmina Reza and stars along with Winslet and Reilly, Christoph Waltz as Alan Cowan and Jodie Foster as Penelope Longstreet. Foster has also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress Musical or Comedy.The short synopsis: Two pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the evening into chaos. 

Carnage is another holdover from last year that we’ve been talking about for months. After playing nearly every conceivable film festival it opened in NY and LA on December 16 and is finally getting a wider release this week. (I have my ticket! YAY!) 

Stay connected with us! Follow us on Twitter, fan us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed. We would love to hear from you.

I want to be Kate Winslet in my next life. I absolutely adore this woman. She is my girl-crush. She’s beautiful, intelligent, massively talented and humanly flawed (she still smokes, but rolls her own which shouldn’t be cool, but somehow is) and at once secure in her own skin and as insecure as the rest of us when it comes to matters of the heart.

Then there’s that voice. I want to sound like that. In my head I do. (Okay, that was maybe TMI) I love knowing that she swears like a sailor in that voice.

Kate’s been the face of Lancome, particularly Tresor perfume for years. She’s done campaigns for Longines watches and appeared on the cover of hundreds of high-end magazines all over the world, and has even been called a “yummy mummy” by British men’s mag FHM. I love that she has publicly decried cosmetic surgery and frankly, look forward to seeing her age gracefully. Frankly I think she’s more beautiful now than at 20 when she appeared in Titanic.

I’m also a fan of St. John and I think that their fluid lines and classic knits are a good match for Kate and her effortless style. I love the pieces she wears in this video, especially the off the shoulder, over-sized peach sweater. Next time I feel like dropping $800 on a sweater, I’ll definitely keep it in mind.

Kate, by the way, is up for two Golden Globes this Sunday. One for Best Actress in a Mini-Series for Mildred Pierce and one for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for Carnage. 

Stay connected with us! Follow us on Twitter, fan us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed. We would love to hear from you.

It's a very Kate Winslet week on home video. We've already told you about HBO's Mildred Pierce, but she's also got Steven Soderbergh's star-studded medical disaster flick, Contagion available on dvd, blu-ray and two disc combo pack starting today, January 3. We talked about it extensively prior to its theatrical release, but in case you missed it, Contagion is an action-thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease, apparently being spread by birds (don't we have an actual 'bird-flu'? Is this a more virulent strain? Can I get vaccinated for this? OMG, I'm already paranoid!) and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak. It stars Winslet, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard and Laurence Fishburne.  Fun stuff! You'll want to douse yourself in Purell and live in a bubble by the end of it!

Special Features include

 - Contagion: How A Virus Changes The World

- The Reality of Contagion

- The Contagion Detectives

This is actually a pretty good week if you've a mind to watch movies in the comfort of your home. Puncture, which we've talked about recently, starring Chris Evans, is out today as well. Puncture is a legal drama about a drug-addicted lawyer who takes on a health supply corporation while battling his own personal demons. It costars Michael Biehn, Brett Cullen, Vinessa Shaw, one of the directors, Mark Kassan and Jesse L. Martin.

The complete list of this week's releases:

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (Katie Holmes, Rated R)

The Guard ( Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Mark Strong Rated R) I HIGHLY recommend this one (expect to see it on my Year End Favorites LIst) You probably missed it at the theater in its very limited release. It's a black comedy about the worst policeman in Ireland, played by Gleason, who teams up with an American FBI agent (Cheadle) to thwart some drug smugglers played by Strong, Liam Cunningham and David Wilmot. 

The Greening of Whitney Brown (Brooke Shields, Rated PG)

Chateau Meroux (Barry Watson, Rated PG-13)

Removal (Billy Burke, Rated R)