From the big new trailer heading into Memorial Day weekend and the feature stories accompanying it, you can rest assured that this blockbuster is not going to be all emotions and Malick-y visuals after all. No, this is a Superman movie that takes its aliens seriously.
In Iron Man 3 Robert Downey Jr. (a.k.a. Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man) may have defeated the Mandarin, saved the president, and reunited with Pepper Potts, but perhaps his upcoming battle—the one that will lead to future adventures—will be the most interesting. Yes, Downey is facing off with executives from Marvel.
The trailer for Lee Daniels' The Butler confirms that Oprah Winfrey is returning to the big screen (in non-cameo, non-voiceover form) for the first time since starring opposite of Danny Glover in 1998's Beloved. The trailer also features some of the strangest casting of U.S. presidents in recent memory.
On last night's Daily Show, Stewart wondered about all the reports that said that Christie underwent lap-band surgery just to run for president. "Can't a guy get healthy, without the prognosticators?" Stewart wondered. But Stewart requires some other skills in a 2016 candidate.
Here's your first extended look at the blockbuster adaptation of the classic Y.A. sci-fi book. And while some are wondering whether the trailer is actually too revealing — spoiler-y even — you have to have a pretty good knowledge of the book for the offending scenes to make a big difference. Plus: aliens!
He created the special effects for films like 1963's Jason and the Argonauts, drawing inspiration from King Kong in a prophetic career long before the dawn of CGI — and it's obvious that his influence runs deep through the rise of digital cinema.
If you were at the Met Gala last night, you were treated to Kanye performing new music in a studded mask. If you weren't — which, let's face it, you probably weren't, and you've been stuck looking at red carpet photos all morning — you can hear scream-y snippets of that music via Twitter Vine clips taken by several glamorous, somewhat punk-y guests.
On last night's Daily Show, Stewart tried to make sense of the NRA convention speakers' convoluted logic. In conclusion: "Stop pretending that background checks are the last barrier standing between a free America and Obama-sponsored government mom-rape."
The Vogue editor is at the center of the "nutty confluence" that is Monday night's punk-themed fashion gala at the Met, and even better than the New York cover with a nose ring is the "Annarchy" of Wintour, photoshopped and hanging out with some real-life punks.
Two of early summer's mega-blockbusters include major revelations, but the Marvel folks behind Iron Man 3 managed to keep theirs quiet, while the Star Trek Into Darkness crew has been flailing. Here's a free lesson from the fans: Misdirection works better than secrecy.
The New York Times introduced us to Vinny Bruzzese, a "chain-smoking former statistics professor," who is purportedly "the reigning mad scientist of Hollywood" predicting which scripts will succeed and fail based on mathematical analysis. But reporter Brooks Barnes doesn't give us a glimpse at the numbers supposedly backing up his rules (no bowling scenes!) for hit movies.
The first round of movie reviews have arrived for Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of The Great Gatsby — and they are decidedly mediocre. Let's just say these one-liners won't exactly get blurbed on posters, trailers, or any marketing material whatsoever ahead of Friday's release.
Because, you know, "May the 4th Be With You." And while you may or may not encounter rabid fans actually honoring this punny fake holiday, you may actually want to make a point of bringing it up in conversation because, you know, the Star Wars news is out there. Here's how to argue your way through the attack of the nerds.
This movie sounds different, and some of it doesn't sound right to everyone. So how does the new Great Gatsbysoundtrack from Jay-Z and Baz Luhrmann sound to those who study the language for a living? We asked the musicians and scholars. They were not impressed.
Following a rough day for Howard Kurtz in which the Daily Beast retracted his initially inaccurate Jason Collins story and then publicly parted ways with him, CNN has issued a statement saying their Reliable Sources host is maintaining his position at the network.
In response to the ongoing #FollowATeen movement, in which grownups examine the tweets of kids to discover how silly most of Twitter is, teens on the social platform are rising up and asking their brethren to #FollowAnAdult — because, as the team behind one prominent teems claims, adults are lame, too.
The long-anticipated film adaptation of Orson Scott Card's beloved book began its promotional marathon with teaser for a teaser Friday, but before it becomes the next big Y.A. blockbuster, well, it's got some controversial hurdles to jump — and a Catching Fire collision course at the end of the road.
Last night NBC's two reigning on-camera villains, Jay Leno and Matt Lauer, came together on The Tonight Showfor a bit of cool comfort in NBC's latest public face-saving operation. But if this was an attempt to rehabilitate Lauer's image, it didn't really work.
In taking on the backlog of benefits claims at the VA, Jon Stewart's team engaged in the "greatest paper hunt of all time."
Supreme, the skateboard and apparel brand, very clearly appropriated the aesthetic of legendary conceptual artist Barbara Kruger. Now they are taking another designer to court for appropriating their aesthetic — and Kruger is none too happy about everyone ripping her off.
As he continues to dominate the box office and TV, on Thursday came news that Dwayne Johnson will star in and co-produce a new pilot for HBO. The other producers are Entourage veterans, and you can groan all you want, but the sweet smell of Entourage cheese is exactly what The Rock is good at cooking.
Responding to an intense media firestorm surrounding the media critic, the Daily Beast retracted Kurtz's blog post about Collins, then parted ways with its Washington bureau chief.
The fashion world is in a bit of a pickle: How do the most glamorously dressed people in the world dress up for next week's Metropolitan Museum of Art gala honoring the museum's new "Punk Fashion" exhibit without looking like total poseurs?
After exploring the various insults lobbed by Cruz toward his fellow Senators, and then the insults thrown by everyone else toward the junior Senator from Texas ("wacko bird"), Stewart explained why, exactly, Cruz has been called "the most hated man in the Senate."
It's easy to label the men behind the Star Trek and Iron Man franchises as geeks. They clearly have affection for sci-fi and comic book culture. But they are also, apparently, big Downton Abbey fans, as recent developments would have you believe.
Putin biographer Masha Gessen will apply her long history reporting on Russia and its surroundings and her own experiences emigrating to America in a book on the Tsarnaev brothers, which Riverhead Books announced today.
Consider, from a new oral history of the franchise, actors passed on the film: Paul Rudd and Jack Black. Consider this even more shocking revelation: The role of Alan, ultimately played with breakout distinction by Zach Galifinakis, had Gyllenhaal, Jonah Hill, and Thomas Haden Church in consideration. Also: LiLo as the stripper with the heart of gold, but she was too young.
Following criticism, Julian Fellowes and Co. are following through on a plan to add some needed diversity to the show's lily-white roster ahead of season four. Today comes news that Gary Carr has been cast in the role of Jack Ross, a "black and very handsome" jazz singer.
Even though the administration has said that a "red line" would involve chemical weapons, there remain a lot of questions about the Assad regime. "For instance, did he use them in a boat? Did he use them with a goat? Did he use them in a house? Did he use them with a mouse?"
In the high-stakes race to commoditize the new couch potato, other online networks-in-the-making are working overtime. Can Netflix keep you binging across both ends of the entertainment spectrum? Or is there a funny sleeper hit in the works from the Internet, where two-minute clips are true kings, and 22-minute series are usually, well, really bad?
Despite a Showtime release about "the world's most wanted terrorist" in the new season, there may remain — beyond any assumptions that said "global manhunt" would consume all of season three — reasons to get all excited before September 29.
They're not exactly the Oscars of online, but when this year's Webby nominations came out, we were convinced that Dunham was going to take home yet another award for making Republicans angry in that Obama ad. But lo, the winners were announced this morning, and Lena got beat. By Charlize Theron.
This blockbuster had it all: popular source material (zombies!) and a massive star (Brad Pitt!)... but it seems to have gone so very wrong. At least that's how Vanity Fair chronicles World War Z in its new cover story, bringing to mind the ultimate Hollywood movie disaster.
Jon Stewart turned to Urban Dictionary to help him tell the story of how Congress jumped to action when federal budget cuts were getting in the way of their travel plans.
Movie stars be damned: The Tony Awards are all about a race between a magical little girl who likes to read and a drag queen who helps save a shoe factory.
So what does being on Twitter mean to Brooks? "It is very close to thrilling," he told Judd Apatow, in the kickoff to Twitter and Comedy Central's all too obviously commercial #ComedyFest. But when Apatow asked him again about tweeting, Brooks said: "Explain what a tweet is."
This glimpse of the robots-versus-monsters movie was supposed to be for the eyes of a privileged few at WonderCon, but now there's an extended look for all to see, with a bit more about the plot. Not that there seems to be that much plot, but still: that boat!
The key historial moment in Sunday night's episode wasn't just some smart move concocted inside the Mad Men writers' room. No, this scene basically wrote itself — because it really happened.
It's already kicked off a big following, legally, across the globe — and, very illegally, on the Internet. Which begs the early question: Can Tony Stark leverage his team effort last summer in The Avengers to beat it at the box office?
In the 1926 page for F. Scott's Fitzgerald's handwritten ledger, now online, the famed writer lists that he sold the "Moving Picture" rights to The Great Gatsby for $16,666. Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of that book, due out next month, cost $104.5 million to make.
One of the highlights of this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner was the House of Cards spoof that opened the evening, which brought the popular fictional D.C. to real life D.C., and now you can watch it too.
Both President Barack Obama and Conan O'Brien decided to cast Hollywood versions of D.C. at the White House Correspondents' Dinner this year. Obama's version was directed by Steven Spielberg, O'Brien's starred "Tan Mom" as John Boehner. Watch their full speeches here.
Ah, the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The place where political reporters get to ask questions that would make Us Weekly proud and the pretty people of Hollywood get to mingle with the, well, people of the Beltway. Read our full updates from the night.
You might want to start setting out some time around "mid-2014" to weep: that's when Adele is apparently set to release a new album, according to a mysterious report in the U.K.'s The Mirror picked up widely on Friday.
Tattoos can often symbolize bad decision making, but the Louisville basketball coach got his new ink because his team won the national championship.
The plaintive country singer, who won praise outside his genre and was dubbed "The Possum," died at the age of 81 in Nashville following a hospitalization for fever and irregular blood pressure.
Conan O'Brien, an old pro at this thing, is in D.C. preparing for his stint this weekend at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. And in an interview with Politico, which is way too into this kind of thing, he explains his strategy: Conan doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, and he wants to take aim at the correspondents as much as the politicos.
On last night's Daily Show, he got so excited that George W. Bush is back in the news that he had to breathe into a paper bag. Then he moved on to the new presidential library, also known as "the Hard Rock Café of catastrophic policy decisions."
A new preview for Man of Steel relieved fears that Zack Snyder was going to screw up Superman, reminding us that previews aren't movies, and open minds make for better summers. Today's lesson? The Lone Ranger and The Great Gatsby might not suck either, at least according to people who have seen more than two minutes of them.
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