Saturday, February 19, 2011

Robert Downey Jr. May Shoot 'Inherent Vice' for P.T. Anderson This Fall

Robert Downey Jr. is making plans to fill the fall hole in his schedule with the lead role in Inherent Vice for writer-directorPaul Thomas Anderson.

Anderson has been working on a screenplay adaptation of the 2009Thomas Pynchon novel while trying to get another film -- an untitled exploration of a religious organization sometimes referred to as The Master -- off the ground. Once Downey dropped out of Disney's Oz, the Great and Powerful last month, it freed him to do another movie later this year after he shoots The Avengers for Marvel and Disney. His commitment to Anderson's movie has recently grown serious.

Vice is a comparatively accessible Pynchon work that tells the story of a stoner detective who gets wrapped up in a number of mysteries in 1969 L.A. while the Manson Family trial growls in the background.

Downey, who last starred in Due Date and Iron Man 2, has wrapped filming on Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows for director Guy Ritchie and Warner Bros. That sequel comes out in December. The actor has a number of projects in development at his Team Downey shingle, plus Iron Man 3 to film for Marvel and Disney in time for a summer 2013 release. Avengers is scheduled to begin shooting in the coming months.

Anderson last wrote and directed There Will Be Blood, which grossed $76 million worldwide in 2007. He has spent the last few years developing The Master for Philip Seymour Hoffman to star, and now he is trying to secure financing for both films.

Both Anderson and Downey are repped by CAA, which declined to comment.

CNN Hires Camille Grammer for Oscar Coverage

CNN has hired Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Camille Grammeras a celebrity and fashion commentator for its 2011 Oscar coverage.

Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph and syndicated radio host Carlos Diaz are also part of the Showbiz Tonight Oscar team along with hosts AJ Hammer andBrooke Anderson.Grammer, the ex-wife of Frasier starKelsey Grammer, will be part ofShowbiz Tonight's red carpet team for the Showbiz Tonight: Road to Goldspecial airing Sunday, Feb. 27.

CNN Entertainment and Showbiz Tonight senior executive producerDave Levine said in a statement, "We can't wait to get Camille's unabashed take on Hollywood's biggest night. She will be perfect for Showbiz Tonight."

Musician Sues After Studio Shuts Down 'Twilight' Tribute (Exclusive)

An Ohio musician with ambitious plans to have his music heard by fans of The Twilight Saga is now suing the film's distributor,Summit Entertainment, for standing in his way.

Matthew Smith, who works under the moniker Matt Heart, created a song entitled "Eternal Knight" in 2002. This past November, Heart engaged in a bold marketing campaign to connect the song to new audiences. He posted the song on YouTube and sold it via iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon and other sites. Most audaciously, he says he negotiated to distribute and promote the song in various movie theaters for 28 weeks, hoping to reach an estimated 5 million viewers via an agreement with Screen Vision, which sells ads in theaters around the nation.

But Heart got into trouble when he commissioned a CD cover for "Eternal Knight" indicating it was inspired by the Twilight Saga. The cover art shows a moon and uses a similar typeface to that ofTwilight's movie poster.

The move caught the eye of Summit's legal department, which alerted YouTube, iTunes, Amazon and others to alleged infringement of its intellectual property. Heart's song was removed from those outlets.

Heart and Summit's legal counsel then e-mailed each other, with Summit lawyer Regan Pedersontelling him that "YouTube's digital infrastructure does not differentiate between copyright infringement and trademark infringement," but that Summit was concerned about the trademark violation and had thus initiated a takedown. Pederson wrote Heart that absent the Twilight mark, Heart could repost his music so long as there was no reference whatsoever to Summit's intellectual property.

Heart now claims in his lawsuit, filed yesterday, that Summit misrepresented its legal rights and that the song couldn't have infringed Twilight since it was written and copyrighted first. Never mind, it seems, that Heart may have done a bit of misrepresenting himself over how the work was inspired.

He's suing Summit for fraud, misrepresentation, infliction of emotional distress, tortious interference, and defamation for allegedly getting in the way of his contractual agreements on the song. He wants at least $75,000 in damages.

Heart isn't the first to kick up a legal fuss over a supposedly illegitimate takedown. See the Stephanie Lenz saga. But the case of the entrepreneurial musician against the protective studio is certainly a strange one that could provoke an interesting legal response. In the meantime, we've reached out to Summit and we'll update if we hear anything.

Paris Hilton’s pricey birthday cake was snatched from party

: It sounds like Paris Hilton’s 30th birthday party was perfect except for the fact that she didn’t get one bite of cake at the end of the night.

Paris’ cake at her Hollywood bash was reportedly stolen from the party by a party crasher named “Paz,” states UsMagazine.com. “Paz” posted a message about the night on Facebook along with a picture of the cake: “I crashed Paris Hilton’s Birthday Party and Accidentally the Whole Cake.”

“Paz” then went on to talk about how he and a friend crashed the party, drank for free and then tricked security in order to steal the untouched cake. The cake reportedly cost about $3,200.

Do you think this bothered Paris Hilton at all?

Whitney Port clears up feud rumors with Lauren Conrad

Although the girls don’t really seem like friends, Whitney Port wants everyone to know that things are fine between her and Lauren Conrad.

It was previously rumored that Port was upset because her show, ‘The City,’ was allegedly taken off TV to make room for Conrad’s show that has since not been picked up by MTV. Port recently took to her blog to set the record straight.

“I just want to clear up that everything is more than fine between Lauren and me. So to put the rumor to rest, I wanted to let you know that there are no hard feelings between us!” Port writes, adding that they are still friends.

Do you think these two are actually friends?