Brad Pitt: give the man some credit -- he's an actor!

There's a curious little piece running on The Times of India, and it just leaves you shaking your head. I've heard of some dumb things, but this just about takes the cake.

Pitt out of film for his good looks
Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt is out of upcoming movie State of Play as the director on hindsight felt he was too good-looking to play the role.

Pitt was originally to star in the big-screen thriller as a journalist but the actor quit during pre-production, citing concerns with the script, contactmusic.com reports. Gladiator star Russell Crowe was roped in as a late replacement for Brad to star opposite actor Ben Affleck's character of a Congressman in the film. Director Kevin McDonald is convinced that Crowe's rough features are more suited to the role. "In a way, I was lucky it didn't work out with Brad. The relationship between the journalist and the politician was meant to be between somebody who feels inferior, who's a bit of a schlump, who kind of can't get a girlfriend, and somebody he's looking up to and admires his polished politician friend," he said. "That is not the dynamic of a Brad Pitt. He's not looking up to anyone thinking 'Oh, I wish I could have your girlfriend'," he added.

Here's the rub, boys and girls: THE MAN IS AN ACTOR. He isn't actually Achilles. Nor doe she race about machine-gunning people. Nor was born at age 90 and grow younger throughout life. All these parts are ACTING.

And he's not supposed to be able to act the part of someone who looks up to others and envies their girl friends?!

I would venture to say that if Mr. Pitt decided to play the part of a blind leper, he'd do just fine. Being an ACTOR. Professionally. Meaning, "getting paid to do the job and being bloody good at it."

Anyway, Russell Crowe will also be just fine, but -- and Russ, we love you, man! --it's just the principle of the thing, you know?!

Okay, AG: off the soapbox and on with the eye candy. Here we go:

Men in tights: booboos in the Green Wood

Circulating right now is a king-sized case of "WFT" is going on now?!

This tipped me off to something weird happening:

Russell Crowe's Robin Hood to woo Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian: Will he finally be reunited with Oscars as well?

I mean, it's good news: "Because Cate Blanchett and her playwright husband Andrew Upton are co-artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company she has scaled back her film commitments to barely one a year. That makes the news that Blanchett is about to sign up to play Maid Marian opposite Russell Crowe's Robin Hood even more intriguing."

Great news, in fact, but --

The last time I looked, Russell Crowe was going to be playing the SHERIFF to Christian Bale's Robin. I admit, it's a few months since I looked, but ... this was it. Well, as of 02-28-09, try this one on for size:

The above is a screen-cap from the important part of the 2009 Robin Hood page at IMDB.
Christian Bale is nowhere in sight, and Russell will be playing (OMIGOD!!) both Robin and the Sheriff --

He's going to hunt himself down! He's going to promise to hang and/or behead himself! He's going to menace Maid Marian for being in love with him! He's going to betray himself to Prince John!

Pardon me, folks, but I know the story. I grew up with Robin Hood. He might have been Errol Flynn, or Michael Praed, or Sean Connery, or Jason Connery, or Richard Green, or Cary Elwes, or even (god help us) Kevin Costner. But I grew up with the legend, the mythos, the story, the whole bucket-of-bolts, and I can tell you for a fact, Robin Hood is not, nor was he ever, the Sheriff of Nottingham.

So --WTF?! And here's where I throw up my hands (not to mention my brekkie) and paste in some eye candy instead. So, what the hey, here goes -- Errol, Cary and Michael, in order:





Stay tooned for further developments...

Going postal!

Australia Post has come up with a novel way to take the boredom out of a trip to the post office. You get to give Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman and Geoffrey Rush a good licking ... well, stamps featuring them, anyway! They're appearing on the new 55c stamps, which will pay postage on a domestic letter, anywhere in the country:

Cool set of stamps. Now, you would think that one could at least issue a set of stamps, for heaven's sake, without rubbing someone, somewhere the wrong way ... but you'd be miles away from the truth. Something is apparently wrong with the above lineup.

Let's see. Both the women are blonde, there's a prejudice against brunettes? Um ... all four are European, there should have been at least one black Australian? Uh ... all four have hair; at least one ought to have been bald? Ah -- I have it.

One of them isn't actually an Australian. Russell Crowe is a Kiwki by birth, related to the famous Crowe family of international cricketers, who've played for the Black Caps. Right?

Right. Now, Russell's New Zealand origins don't bother Aussies; but --

The decision by Australia Post to include Russell Crowe in a special series of stamps to mark Australia Day has rubbed New Zealanders the wrong way. Some Kiwis - already cranky about Phar Lap and Pavlova - believe it is another case of Australians claiming what is not rightfully theirs. Now Australia Post has added salt to the wound, naming Russell Crowe an "Australian legend" and putting his picture on a special Australia Day stamp. The colourful and at times controversial Crowe was actually born in Wellington and went to school in Auckland. He became an Australian citizen in 2006, but this doesn't seem to faze the Kiwis, who say Australia can keep Nicole and Cate but can't have Russell. (Kiwis cranky over 'Australian' Russell Crowe stamp).

In fact, you'd be surprised by the people who'll go down in history as Aussies, but are really Kiwis. Like Sam Neill and Karl Urban ... and Russell Crowe!

Christian Bale: the nice guy is back

Many, many people will be incredibly pleased to read this, which just popped up on Cnn.com, under their Entertainment tab:

Bale apologizes for 'Terminator' tantrum

It's a very good interview -- a great interview, even, in which the nice guy shows through, and the issues are handled with elegance and aplomb. Here's a quote:

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Christian Bale wants everyone to make fun of him for his profanity-filled tirade against a crew member on the set of "Terminator: Salvation."

Christian Bale said he was "way out of order" with his tirade during "Terminator: Salvation" filming.

"I deserve it completely," Bale told the hosts of a Los Angeles radio show Friday.

In a phone call to KROQ-FM's "Kevin and Bean" show, Bale apologized for the rant last July against Shane Hurlbut, the movie's director of photography, which was captured on a much-distributed audio recording.

"I was out of order beyond belief," Bale said. "I was way out of order. I acted like a punk. I regret that."

Bale said that although he has been able to laugh at the jokes, "it's been a miserable week for me."

"There is nobody that has heard that tape that is hit harder by it than me," he said. "I make no excuses for it. It is inexcusable."

Take a moment out to go there and read the whole thing:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/06/bale.apology/index.html

Nice one, Christian. Now, let's hope people will drop the whole thing and drive on. Let's get to brass tacks here: would Russell Crowe have been content with shouting and cussing?! He'd probably have wrapped a phone around the director of photography's neck ...! (Sorry, Russell. We love you, man, but I couldn't resist that one.)


Welcome back, Mr. Nice Guy!