Anne Hathaway

Okay, we don't want to get our hopes up....but this Tim Burton-directed Alice in Wonderland which will combine live action with performance-capture "technology" (meep!) is beginning to sound kinda awesome. In addition to Mia Wasikowska (from HBO's In Treatment) being cast as Alice, and Johnny Depp signing on as the Mad Hatter, The Hollywood Reporter reports today that Anne Hathaway, fresh off all her good reviews for Rachel Getting Married, has signed on to play the White Queen while Helena Bonham Carter will play the Red Queen. Good for Anne Hathaway! Not only has she handled a difficult time in her personal life with grace and aplomb in interviews, but she's doing the smartest thing possible: making good movies for people to talk about instead (it worked for Nicole Kidman, too). As for Mr. Burton's new production, we eagerly await casting news on who will play the Cheshire Cat. Is Jack Nicholson available?

Rachel Getting Married
Running time 113 minutes
Written by Jenny Lumet
Directed by Jonathan Demme
Starring Anne Hathaway, Debra Winger, Bill Irwin

Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married, from a screenplay by Jenny Lumet, is said to have been inspired by Robert Altman’s satirically free-wheeling A Wedding (1978), and probably by Ms. Lumet’s own experiences in an interracial family. As far as I’m concerned, weddings in movies tend to be guilty until proven innocent or even intelligent. Ever since the old Production Code was scrapped to allow last-minute mischief at the altar, as in Mike Nichols’ The Graduate (1967) and P.  read more »

Rachel Getting Married
Running Time 114 minutes
Written By Jenny Lumet
Directed By Jonathan Demme
Starring Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Mather Zickel, Debra Winger

After dazzling tough film festival audiences in Venice and Toronto, Jonathan Demme’s pulsating new film Rachel Getting Married has arrived on the fall movie scene to remind me what real movies are still all about. Up to my eyeballs in draggy, shapeless amateur junk, I am genuinely thrilled to welcome a film this colorful, artistically realized and wonderfully alive. Steeped in the tradition of sound narrative form yet scrappy and unpredictable, acted and written with enormous style but with front and back doors open to experiment and surprise, it’s a film that challenges you to keep a jogger’s pace to keep up with it, then leaves you breathless.  read more »

This year’s New York Film Festival opened Friday night with a screening of French director Laurent Cantet’s The Class.

The film, which has already won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, focuses on a multicultural classroom in Paris’ rapidly gentrifying 20th Arrondissement. With the exception of the role of the teacher, who is played by the author of the memoir that inspired the movie, the cast is made up of a group of amateur teenage actors, most of whom had traveled to New York for the festival.

Maybe it was the serious, relatively low-profile film—The Darjeeling Limited was last year's selection, and The Queen opened the year before that—or the rain or the presidential debates on TV, but the red carpet was particularly quiet.  read more »

Meghan McCain was overheard discussing new tattoo options with the editor of her new children's book, Mark Mcveigh, though she wants to wait until "after the election in November." [P6]

Paris Hilton has said, "Some celebrities become famous and they forget who they are or where they came from and they hide out like some recluse. I'm not going to do that." It's true, Hilton would really have to lose touch with her roots to become a recluse. [US Weekly]

Anne Hathaway was quoted as saying, "I'm not the sort of girl that will throw up on a short skirt and tease her hair up." Neither are we! [NYDN]

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Sarah Palin's people "do not want the American public to know that [she] is using stylists or that she is paying for expensive clothes this early in the campaign." We definitely did not know. [P6] 

The Obama campaign rebuffed newly minted political blogger Lindsay Lohan's offer to host "a series of events for younger voters," reportedly saying that she is "not exactly the kind of high-profile star who would be positive for us." [TMZ] 

Socialite and jewelry designer Genevieve Jones is dating Oscar de la Renta's 24-year-old son Moises. [Paper]

Jennifer Lopez threw husband Marc Anthony a surprise "1940's Cuban nightclub themed" birthday party at the Bowery Hotel the same day she finished fifth in the "celebrity women's category" (which apparently exists!) in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon. [People]  read more »

Columbia students have been harassing James Franco, who's enrolled in an MFA program in writing. [P6]

Mary-Kate Olsen forced organizers of at the Rock and Republic show to re-seat her in between Gossip Girl stars Chace Crawford and Jessica Szohr, though she later obliged them by "[smiling] in the front row." [NYDN]

Sean 'Diddy' Combs totally lied about having a private jet!  [Palm Beach Post]

For those who don't know their Hamish Bowles from their Michael Roberts: The good people at Cityfile have put together an illustrated guide to prominent fashion week faces. [Cityfile]    read more »

Unless you're like the Comic Book Guy, you probably don't even realize The Simpsons is still on the air. That's okay we barely remembered either! It's not that we aren't fans; when push comes to shove, we'd still say we love The Simpsons. It's just that but we haven't watched a new episode in eight years. Did we say "new" episode? Let's rephrase that. Any episode. When you've seen every episode ten times over, from elementary school all the way through college, it's understandable to take a break.

For those of you who are still watching, though, the new season kicks off on September 28th, and Entertainment Weekly has already confirmed two of the guest voices for the 20th season (20th season! We are old!)  read more »

Last night the much-discussed Hollywood contingent here in Denver, who have been lending their "visibility" to myriad events and causes all over town, congregated in the V.I.P. section of the Black Eyed Peas concert. Members of the Creative Coalition's hard-working band of entertainers—Alan Cumming, Tim Daly, Anne Hathaway, Spike Lee, Barry Levinson, Josh Lucas, Matthew Modine, Susan Sarandon—were joined by various showbiz colleagues including Jessica Alba and Hayden Panettiere in the balcony area at the Fillmore Auditorium, as Fergie & Co. shook their rumps on stage below.

Meanwhile, local nightclub impresario Jesse Morreale wondered if the glamorous crowd would have enough energy to return for another after after party at the Rockbar.  read more »

DENVER—After hosting a lunch in support of helping diabetes patients at the restaurant Panzano, the Creative Coalition gathered its merry band of New York-based celebrities into a back section of the restaurant to get on with the showbiz-oriented non-profit's lesser known agenda this year: a documentary, called Poliwood, featuring their historic voyage to the Democratic National Convention, directed by Barry Levinson.

The scene in the backroom featured a pep talk from a frumpy looking guy with a bad toupee on refining the rhetoric of Democratic talking points, followed by a Q&A among the actors in attendance, including Susan Sarandon, Anne Hathaway, Josh Lucas, Richard Schiff, Giancarlo Esposito and others.  read more »

The hair-product maven John Paul DeJoria, dressed in a black suit with a black T-shirt underneath, was assessing the hair of Denver during a luncheon hosted by the Creative Coalition this afternoon at Panzano, the downtown restaurant.

“The people of Denver have the nice looking hair,” said Mr. DeJoria, who is the co-founder of Paul Mitchell hair-care products. “I wish they would grow it a little bit longer. I think this is an excellent market for Paul Mitchell.”

Denver isn't such an easy city to get around, especially when the Pepsi Center belches forth its thousands into a relatively small network of streets to fight for cabs.  read more »

Now that we're into the second day of the Democratic National Convention, it's time for a poll of all that "celebrity power" that was supposed to follow Barack Obama to Denver.

While Paris Hilton has not shown up yet (much to the disappointment of John McCain supporters), here are some noteworthy names that attended events during the first day of the convention as put together by Associated Press, with a little additional research by the Daily Transom:

Danny Glover showed up at the Creative Coalition event wearing a Martin Luther King Jr. T-shirt under his blazer.  read more »

Heath Ledger was reportedly a silent investor in Five Leaves, a Greenpoint bar designed by John McCormick, who also designed Smith & Mills and Beatrice Inn. While the project was at first put on hold after the actor's death, his father has agreed to fund the project to its completion. [P6]

Christian Bale's assault on his mother was possibly not an assault at all; sources say he never touched her, but merely raised his voice when she made negative remarks about his wife. Apparently, the British consider yelling a verbal assault and therefore a crime. [NY Daily News]

As part of an investigation into Raffaello Follieri's affairs, the F.  read more »

After getting arrested for wire fraud conspiracy and operating a money laundering scheme, real estate developer--and ex of Anne Hathaway--Raffaello Follieri might make a deal with prosecutors, reports the Post.

Mr. Follieri, whose bail was set at $21 million because prosecutors argued that he was at flight risk, has been locked up since his arrest on June 24th.

"Follieri is in plea discussions," said Assistant US attorney Jennifer Burns.

But Mr. Follieri's lawyer, Flora Edwards, seemed to be unaware of such dealings. "I'm certainly not saying that, and I'm not sure it's appropriate," she said about the possibility of a deal.  read more »

Uma Thurman is reportedly engaged to financier Arpad Busson. [NY Daily News]

Those awkward photos of Sean Avery standing shirtless in a fashion closet at Men's Vogue mysteriously disappeared from the magazine's Web site. [Radar]

Graydon Carter, Jann Wenner, Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Buffet, Gay Talese and others gathered at the Waverly Inn on Wednesday to celebrate Gonzo, a Carter-produced documentary about the life and work of Hunter S. Thompson. [WWD]

Raffaello Follieri's friends reportedly want Anne Hathaway to come get the chocolate lab the couple bought together.  read more »

Club 1Oak reportedly tried to cover up a gay-bashing incident that left one victim with visible wounds and sent another to the hospital. [Gawker]

Lindsay Lohan is showing up on time to movie shoots and being nice to her co-stars. Apparently, it's all thanks to Samantha Ronson. [P6]

Vogue contributing editor, Julia Reed, says that Hillary Clinton's campaign ultimately dropped out of doing a Vogue cover story because they thought they already had the women's votes in the bag. "This was right before Iowa. What an idiot!" she said of Ms. Clinton's communications director, Howard Wolfson. [WWD]

In an interview in the current issue of InStyle, Anne Hathaway says she and Rafaello Follieri are house-hunting and putting off getting engaged. Since that interview, they broke up and Mr. Follieri got arrested. [P6]

Madonna and Guy Ritchie are reportedly splitting up. For real this time. [NY Daily News]

Italian businessman Raffaelo Follieri, 29, who was recently dumped by Anne Hathaway has been arrested (again!) this morning on charges of wire fraud conspiracy and operating a money laundering scheme, the The New York Post reports.

Mr. Follieri is accused of duping investors by claiming that he had been appointed as the chief financial officer of the Vatican and promising that he could obtain properties of the Catholic church in the United States at bargain prices.

His only actual connection to the Vatican turned out to be merely attending meetings with members of the clergy in Italy arranged by an administrative employee that he paid off.  read more »

MTV reportedly shot a reality show featuring socialite Tinsley Mortimer, but the project was killed because she just got dressed and went out to parties every day. [P6]

Kelly Cutrone responded to The Observer's commenters' questioning of her age by scanning her driver's license. She is, in fact, 42-years-old as she had told Meredith Bryan. [The Cut]

Christie Brinkley went to New York Supreme Court yesterday to ask that her divorce from Peter Cook be made public. The documents reportedly contain details about Mr. Cook trolling porn and swinger websites for young women. [Access Hollywood]

Chuck Schumer will appear on Law and Order: Criminal Intent as himself on Sunday night.  read more »

Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis have both reportedly paid a visit to the doctor shortly after Sex and the City's release, opting for a breast augmentation surgery and a varicose vein removal, respectively. [P6]

Barack and Michelle Obama appear on the cover of Us Weekly this week with Mrs. Obama depicted as a "down-to-earth mom." Never mind the fact that she graduated cum laude from Princeton followed by Harvard Law. [Us Weekly]

Exes Anne Hathaway and Raffaello Follieri stayed at separate residences in New York yesterday—Ms. Hathaway at Gramercy Park Hotel and Mr. Follieri at his rental in Trump Tower—but were reportedly planning to meet up for dinner at Cipriani's.  read more »

Get Smart
Running time 110 minutes
Written by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember
Directed by Peter Segal
Starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson

Peter Segal’s Get Smart, from a screenplay by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember, is based on a satiric television series with characters created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. In fact, Mr. Brooks and Mr. Henry are listed in the film’s credits as “consultants.” This leads one to wonder if the timely jabs at an anonymous Bush-like president and a Cheney-like vice president can be attributed at least partly to the Brooks-Henry team.  read more »

According to the Daily Mail, Anne Hathaway has broken up with her businessman boyfriend, Raffaello Follieri.

An "insider" tells the daily that 25-year-old Ms. Hathaway "made the painful decision to end their relationship because of the effects his controversial business dealings could have on her career."

Mr. Follieri, 29, recently made news when New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo revealed that he was investigating Mr. Follieri's charity, the Follieri Foundation, and issuing subpoenas for various financial records of the children's organization.  read more »

Last week I wore a pair of six-inch Lanvin sling-back stilettos while hosting a fashion show in Dallas. They looked great with my new Band of Outsiders jacket. I told the assembled crowd of socialites that it was the only way I could see over the lectern, which was true-ish. It was all fairly transparent. Anyone could see that I invented this excuse in order to walk the runway wearing those insane shoes and have my Linda Evangelista moment.

I’m a big believer in excuses. The more baroque, the better. I see them as a form of politeness.  read more »

Yep, the big-teethed, Devil Wears Prada sweetie Anne Hathaway will get out the claws for her role in Bride Wars, which will be directed by the guy who brought us 13 Going on 30. Hathaway will play a bff to blondie Kate Hudson (you know, Goldie's daughter who got an Oscar nod for her role in Almost Famous?) until they realize their weddings fall on the same day.  read more »

Anne Hathaway is gorgeous, smart as young Jane in Julian Jarrold’s Becoming Jane, an admirably intended tribute to Jane Austen.  read more »

Gaping Plot Holes Well, I finally went and saw that movie with the cowboys in love or the sheepherders in love or whatever. SPOILER ALERT: So it turns out they're gays! It's like The Crying Game, I guess, except they don't try to fool you into thinking Heath Ledger's a chick. But--SPOILER ALERT NO. 2!--one thing kept bugging me: Why didn't they do any fishing? I mean, there wasn't any crystal meth and Viagra in the Wyoming backcountry in the '70s, right? So sooner or later, you gotta crawl out of the tent and kill some time. And they're supposed to be a coupla normal red-blooded guys from the American West, except for the man-on-man stuff, which, whatever, that's where everybody wears chaps and womenfolk are scarce, so maybe that too, right, Kemosabe? Anyway. Point is, what else is there to do in the middle of nowhere all weekend? Get drunk? Shoot the shit? Have brunch? Whaddya think straight guys do on their fishing trips? They were even camped out by the riverside. Get out your poles, already, fellas! --Tom "Nice Pair on Anne Hathaway, Bro" Scocca