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The Team Behind 'Scarface' Is Reuniting For The Joe Paterno Biopic

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Al Pacino

Brian De Palma and Al Pacino are to reunite for a biopic about Pennsylvania State University's controversial former American football coach, Joe Paterno, who was forced to retire after a sexual abuse scandal took place on his watch.

Pacino was first reported to be in talks to play Paterno in September last year.

Now Deadline reports that De Palma has agreed to take on directing duties for the drama, which is titled Happy Valley.

The pair last worked together on the gangster tale Carlito's Way in 1993, and before that on 1983's iconic mob drama Scarface.

Paterno, who was not involved in any criminal activity, left his job in 2011, after 45 years, when his former defensive co-ordinator Jerry Sandusky was accused – and later convicted – of 45 counts of sexually abusing teenage boys over a 15-year period.

The veteran head coach, who won two national championships with the Penn State Nittany Lions and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2007, was criticised for failing to report his long-term colleague to police.

A focal point for censure was Paterno's failure to inform police of accusations, made in 2001 by a member of staff, that Sandusky had raped a 10-year-old boy; Paterno only informed his superiors, and Sandusky was not arrested.

Sandusky went on to abuse more children, whom he preyed upon through his youth charity The Second Mile, which he ran for 35 years from the Penn State campus.

When the allegations against Sandusky emerged in 2011, the 85-year-old Paterno was fired, leading to demonstrations of support outside his house – and later riots in the streets – by his students. Paterno died a few months later as a result of complications caused by lung cancer. Sandusky, 68, was sentenced to 60 years in prison last year, meaning he will almost certainly spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Happy Valley – which is based on Joe Posnanski's bestselling biography, Paterno – is expected to detail Paterno's entire life rather than just its denouement. Pacino has played a football coach before, in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday.

"Happy Valley reunites the Scarface and Carlito's Way team of De Palma and Pacino for the third time, and I can't think of a better duo to tell this story of a complex, intensely righteous man who was brought down by his own tragic flaw," producer Edward R Pressman told Deadline.

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

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DreamWorks Animation Named Best Studio To Work For In Hollywood

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ShrekFor the fifth consecutive year, DreamWorks Animation has made Fortune Magazine's list of the 100 best employers, and once again it is the only Hollywood studio to make the cut. 

DreamWorks placed 12th, moving up from last year's 14th place ranking. The studio has made Fortune's list since 2009, debuting at 47th and has ranked at high as 6th place in 2010. 

What makes it such a great place to work?

DreamWorks is known for its friendly, open atmosphere, it's great perks, like free breakfasts and lunch for all its employees, and for its free classes, which include yoga, figure drawing, and storytelling,

It's campus is also filled with water fountains, ping pong tables and fish ponds for employees to enjoy throughout the day. 

The studio was founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, legendary music production David Geffen and former Disney executive, Jeffrey Katzenberg. The studio is best known for its hits "Shrek", "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Kung Fu Panda."

Google once again ranked number one. The entire list will be revealed Thursday.

SEE ALSO: There's going to be a lot of Chinese product placement in "Iron Man 3" >

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These Are The Best Movie Posters Of 2012

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moonrise kingdom movie poster 2012

Before the Academy of Motion Pictures hands out the awards for the best films of 2012, it's appropriate to look at the crucial marketing tool that brought people into the theaters: the movie posters.

Adrian Curry at Notebook, a daily, international film publication that analyzes film posters, just released a list of the best posters of the year.

They range from work for Hollywood blockbusters to half hour shorts by foreign directors.

Let us know if you agree with the choices in the comments.

There was a three-way tie for first. Winners included "The Lorax" ...

Click here to see more>



"Wreck it Ralph" ...

Click here to see more>



and "Life of Pi."

Click here to see more>



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Arnold Schwarzenegger Responded To A Reddit AMA With Awesome Handwritten Notes

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arnold schwarzeneggerFormer California governor Arnold Schwarzeneggertook to Reddit Tuesday for an AMA ("Ask Me Anything") with the site's thousands of users.

The Q&A session, which is part of Schwarzenegger's press tour to promote "The Last Stand" out in theaters Friday, revealed that the Austrian actor is now "definitely more comfortable in English" and that his biggest film regret is passing on the movie "The Rock."

Schwarzenegger also gave a thoughtful response on his opinions about the current state of the Republican party:

The most important thing is that we need to be a party that is inclusive and tolerant. We can be those things and be the party we always have been. We need to think about the environment - Teddy Roosevelt was a great environmentalist and people forget Reagan was the one who dealt with the ozone layer with the Montreal protocol. We also need to talk about healthcare honestly - Nixon almost passed universal healthcare. We need to have an talk about immigration and realize you can't just deport people. We need a comprehensive answer. We also need to stay out of people's bedrooms. The party that is for small government shouldn't be over-reaching into people's private lives.

Mainly, we need to be a party where people know what we are for, not just what we are against.

Despite his strong political message, the politician/actor chose to answer mostly softball questions about his Hollywood career during the AMA.

But he didn't answer them by typing, he instead wrote handwritten responses on an iPad and then uploaded the notes as images to Reddit. 

But considering his handwriting, perhaps he should have stuck to the traditional format. Some of the best question and answers are below:

Question From PyraoWhat is the best piece of advice you've ever recieved in your life?

Arnold Schwarzenegger Reddit AMA

Question from mistakes_were_madeWill you be making "Twins 2"?

Arnold Schwarzenegger Reddit AMA

Question from Dr_Medic345If you had to pick your favorite line from any movie, what would it be?

Arnold Schwarzenegger Reddit AMA

And lastly, a thank you doodle:

Arnold Schwarzenegger Reddit AMA

SEE ALSO: 'Iron Man' will be wielding Chinese gadgets thanks to huge new product placement deal >

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British Undercover Cop Who Seduced Activists Gets Lucky With 'James Bond' Defense

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Mark Stone Kennedy

The bizarre story of British cop who went deep undercover with activists took another bizarre twist today as a judge compared his actions to those of James Bond.

For the better part of a decade, Mark Stone was a key part of the UK's environmental protest movement. He traveled widely around Europe, playing a big role in some of the continents most confrontational protests, and claims he was even badly beaten by police officers.

He was nicknamed "Flash" as he always seemed to have more money than other activists. He had tattoos, long hair, and piercings. Crucially, Stone had at least two sexual relationships with fellow activists during his time in the movement, one of which was a serious, long term relationship.

The problem is that "Mark Stone" wasn't who he said he was.

He was Mark Kennedy, an undercover police officer working with the Metropolitan Police Force. A married man with two children, he spent 8 years living a double life — until one day his activist girlfriend of five years discovered his real passport and his cover was blown.

Kennedy's double life has become an epic disaster for the Met Police. In 2011 prosecutors were forced to abandon a case against six activists who were accused of conspiring to break into a coal-fired power station after they were asked to reveal details of their undercover agent. 

Kennedy, who had since quit the police force, was suspected of having acted like an "agent provocateur", the Guardian reported. "We're not talking about someone sitting at the back of the meeting taking notes - he was in the thick of it," Danny Chivers, who was one of the six defendants in the failed case, told the BBC.

An official police watchdog report last year slammed the undercover work done by Kennedy and others.

According to a 2011 interview he conducted with the Daily Mail, Kennedy's life is now ruined. He is separated from his wife and children, and has moved to the US to start again. In 2012 he claimed to have had PTSD, and said he would be suing the Met Police for failing to stop him from "falling in love".

"The police had access to all my phone calls, texts and emails, many of which were of a sexual and intimate nature," he said. "They knew where I was spending the night and with whom. They did nothing to prevent me falling in love."

Kennedy's having sexual relationships with those he was spying on has proven especially controversial. A group of 10 women and one men have accused Kennedy, another undercover officer, and the Met Police of causing emotional trauma. They argue that their basic human right to a private life was breached by the actions.

Today Justice Tugendhat ruled that the case would be heard not in public court but in a secret court usually used for cases involving the security service.

Tugendhat explained his ruling by pointing towards the use of womanizing by James Bond, the fictional British spy. From the transcript of the ruling:

Other examples come to mind from the realms of fiction. James Bond is the most famous fictional example of a member of the intelligence services who used relationships with women to obtain information, or access to persons or property. Since he was writing a light entertainment, Ian Fleming did not dwell on the extent to which his hero used deception, still less upon the psychological harm he might have done to the women concerned. But fictional accounts (and there are others) lend credence to the view that the intelligence and police services have for many years deployed both men and women officers to form personal relationships of an intimate sexual nature (whether or not they were physical relationships) in order to obtain information or access.

The use of a fictional spy to justify the actions of a real spy has raised some eyebrows.

"In the context of the rest of the ruling," Alex Hern of the New Statesman observes, "the judge appears to be claiming that, because a famous fictional spy had fictional sexual relationships with fictional women in fiction, Parliament must have intended the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to bestow the ability to have deceptive sexual relationships on police spies."

Perhaps an even stranger twist in the case is the revelation that other undercover agents may have also used "personal relationships of an intimate sexual nature" as tactics. In total, 6 undercover officers have been accused of the tactic, according to the Guardian, including one police officer who is accused of having a child with a woman who presumed he was a fellow activist.

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'Dear Abby' Dead At 94

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dear abby Abigail Van BurenPauline Friedman Phillips aka Abigail Van Buren  the original co-writer of the "Dear Abby" column — has died at the age of 94.

Publicist Gene Willis confirmed Phillips died Wednesday after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Phillips first started the long running “Dear Abby” advice columnn in the The San Francisco Chronicle in 1956 as a 37-year-old housewife under the pen name “Abigail Van Buren." (Abigail from the Bible and Van Buren from her favorite president.)

The column has since grown to a daily readership of 100 million and appears in more than 1,200 newspapers worldwide.

Phillips' daughter, Jeanne Phillips, took over the column in 2002 after her mother retired when diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Jeanne tells TMZ, "I have lost my mother, my mentor and my best friend. My mother leaves very big high heels to fill with a legacy of compassion,commitment and positive social change. I will honor her memory every day by continuing this legacy."

Phillips' twin sister was advice columnist Ann Landers  who died in 2002 at the age of 83.

"They were born in Sioux City, Iowa, on July 4, 1918 and both worked on the Morningside College newspaper," reports People. "And were even married in a double-ring ceremony on their birthday in 1939."

In 1964, Dear Abby professed"The purpose of life is to amount to something and have it make some difference that you lived at all."

SEE ALSO: 15 things you didn't know about Betty White in honor of her 91st birthday >

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The 8 Strangest Things Megan Fox Said In Her Bizarre Esquire Interview

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megan fox esquire

If you haven't checked out Megan Fox's latest Esquire interview, it's one of the most bizarre things we've ever read.

Beginning with a long, detailed description of an Aztec human sacrifice, the author tries to loosely parallel the act to Megan Fox's Hollywood career, by referring to her as the last American Bombshell.

Vice has referred to it as "the worst thing ever written" while others have taken to Twitter to poke fun at some of the descriptions, (at one point her brow is pegged as a camouflaged butterfly"), and her even stranger quotes.

Throughout the piece, Fox is compared to buffalos, describes her love of the Book of Revelation, and shares about speaking in tongues at a young age.

The entire thing sounds transcendent, like something out of a sci-fi movie.

We've gathered some of the weirdest bits from the interview.

In case you were confused, Fox is not an ancient Aztec, but her life is similar to that of an human sacrifice.

"Megan Fox is not an ancient Aztec. She's a screen saver on a teenage boy's laptop, a middle-aged lawyer's shower fantasy, a sexual prop used to sell movies and jeans.

'It's so similar. It totally is,' she says quietly.

At the end of the year, the beautiful youth had to go up by himself. He had to go up willingly. That was part of the deal. Now she is shaking her head. "Not everyone understands that that's the deal," she says. Megan Fox will not go willingly to have her heart cut out."

(Esquire)



Fox is the last bombshell ever ... and because of that can be compared to buffalo.

"To be a bombshell in 2013 is to be an antiquity, an old-world relic … Bombshells once used to roam the cultural landscape like buffalo, and like buffalo they were edging toward extinction."

(Esquire)



Fox is preparing for the end of days ... and is completely comfortable with the Antichrist (who she mentions once throughout the interview).

"I've read the Book of Revelation a million times," Megan Fox says. "It does not make sense, obviously. It needs to be decoded. What is the dragon? What is the prostitute? What are these things? What is this imagery? What was John seeing? And I was just thinking, What is the Antichrist?"

(Esquire)



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Young Scott Disick Was Seriously A Book Cover Model

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Kourtney Kardashian Scott Disick

Scott Disick may be known for his antics on E!'s popular "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," but before he rose to reality TV star fame, turns out Disick was a model — book cover model.

Kourtney Kardashian's long time boyfriend and the father of her two children was 17-years-old when he posed for two young adult novels aimed at tweens. 

His co-star model, who has not been named, told BuzzFeed, "Scott was so shy. He always came alone and acted like the silent mysterious type. He would wear really baggy clothes and had no sense of real style."

If only the dapper Disick could hear that now!

Here's one cover:

Scott disick young

There's more:

scott disick young

SEE ALSO: Rihanna's Tips For Taking The Perfect Instagram Selfie

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FX May Split Off New FXX, Targeting Younger Viewers

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fx louie late show episodeNews Corp. may split the successful FX network into two networks, with the new one, FXX, focusing more on 20somethings and comedy.

The new network could replace Fox Soccer, the Los Angeles Times said. Broadcasting & Cable reported the possible name and focus of the new channel.

"We're constantly evaluating our programming offerings and this is just one notion we have considered over the past year or so," a Fox spokesman told TheWrap.

The move would make sense given the vast content available to FX, said Brad Adgate, director of research for Horizon Media.

"They're probably going to get more viewers with a second entertainment network," he told TheWrap. "Why not create a second?"

If Fox Soccer becomes FXX, Fox could potentially air its games on the new network it is developing to compete with ESPN, Adgate noted.

News Corp. also has the movie channel FXM.

The possible split for FX comes as the company has dramatically increased its content in recent seasons. Besides dramatic hits like "Justified," "Sons of Anarchy" and "American Horror Story," it also airs comedies including the highly rated "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and the acclaimed "Louie."

The network is also building a late-night lineup with "Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell" and "BrandX With Russell Brand."

The split would follow the successful approach of other conglomerates. NBC Universal has USA, Bravo and E!, among other cable stations, while Turner airs its dramas on TNT and comedies on TBS. AMC Networks is taking a similar approach, airing dramas on AMC and developing new ones for Sundance as IFC focuses on comedy.

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Michelle Obama Debuts Her New Bangs On Twitter

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michelle obama

Betty White, who?

The two media darlings may share a birthday today, but it's Michelle Obama who is stealing the spotlight with the debut of a fresh new 'do. She tweeted a photo from her meeting this morning with Inaugural citizen co-chair David Hall from her new Twitter handle @FLOTUS.

She previously used @MichelleObama, but that account was run by the President's re-election team, according to the AP. The Democratic National Committee is holding the reigns this time around, though Michelle will occasionally tweet, signing personal messages with "-mo."

Check out the First Lady's "after" photo below:

michelle obama bangs hi res

We're loving the new bangs, and the Twittersphere feedback has been positive so far.

SEE ALSO: 15 things you didn't know about Betty White in honor of her 91st birthday >

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Four Money Lessons We Can Learn From The Cast Of 'Downton Abbey'

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Downton Abbey

The Masterpiece series "Downton Abbey" has become a surprise hit, providing millions of Americans with a Sunday-night escape to a more elegant era. As a side benefit, "Downton Abbey" also happens to teach some valuable lessons about money.

In a way, the show is all about money: the contrast between the haves and the have-nots, the role money plays in marriage and the struggles of wealthy people to hang onto their money. Here are four key financial lessons to take from "Downton Abbey."

1. Don't tie up too much wealth in illiquid assets

Downton Abbey is the name of the massive estate inhabited by the Crawley family. The land and buildings are no doubt worth a large amount of money, but the estate also requires a healthy cash flow because of its large staff, upkeep for opulent furnishings and regular high-society functions. Robert Crawley, the head of the family, has already had to marry into money to retain Downton Abbey, and as the series goes on, the financial challenge of hanging onto the estate is an ongoing source of tension.

In the modern day, too many people have this problem, albeit on a much smaller scale. If you cut your budget too closely when buying a house, so that every available dollar goes into the mortgage, you'll find yourself caught short at the very first emergency. Unless you too have the option of marrying into money, you may well find yourself without the cash flow necessary to maintain your most valuable asset.

2. Don't concentrate too much of your portfolio in one investment

Crawley compounds his problems by investing the bulk of the family's money in a Canadian railroad venture. When that venture fails, the loss threatens to force the Crawleys to give up Downton Abbey. Then and now, diversification should not just be an abstract concept -- it should be an iron-clad rule of every investment program.

3. Never invest in something that everyone says can't lose

Crawley's unwise investment was spurred on by popular opinion that railroad ventures were sure things. Between the dot-coms and the real estate market, a more recent generation has certainly seen its share of can't-miss investments fail. The problem isn't just that popular opinion is often wrong; the real flaw in these situations is that if an investment is already wildly popular by the time you get in, you'll probably pay too much for it.

4. Always discuss financial decisions with your spouse

When the railroad venture fails, Crawley faces the task of telling his wife about the massive loss. This is all the more uncomfortable because it was actually her family money that he has lost. If you discuss major financial decisions with your spouse up front, you not only won't have to surprise your spouse with bad news, but you might just get talked out of a foolish decision.

Viewing the "Downton Abbey" characters from a 21st century perspective, their motivations seem quaintly old-fashioned, and Robert Crawley's decisions in particular seem maddeningly naive. Still, even in the information age, people continue to make decisions about money that are ill-informed, destructive and just plain careless. The characters of "Downton Abbey" could have used some better financial advice, but there is still plenty to learn from their examples today.

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Justin Timberlake's New Single Could Be One Of The Biggest Debuts Of All Time

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justin timberlake new york city penthouse

After a seven-year music break, Justin Timberlake is back and better than ever.

At 12 am Monday, Timberlake released his newest single "Suit & Tie" featuring a cameo by Jay-Z.

Billboard already predicted his newest hit earn as many as 400,000 downloads by January 20.

His last big hit, "SexyBack," had 250,000 digital downloads back in September 2006.

While it's not likely to break the current record – Taylor Swift holds that title with 623,000 paid downloads for the infectious "We are Never Ever Getting Back Together" – if the song manages to crack the 300,000 mark it will be one of seven songs to surpass that mark. 

The track is currently the top seller on iTunes, and is expected make the top ten of Billboard's top 100, if not top the list. Timberlake has topped the chart three other times as a solo artist with "SexyBack," "My Love," featuring T.I., and "What Goes Around...Comes Around." 

In an open letter to his fans, Timberlake discussed his latest song saying, "The inspiration for this really came out of the blue and to be honest, I didn't expect anything out of it. I just went into the studio and started playing around with some sounds and songs...What I came up with is something I couldn't be more excited about!... hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it."

The single will be part of his new album, "The 20/20 Experience," due out later this year. 

Listen to the track below:

SEE ALSO: The strangest things Megan Fox said in her bizarre Esquire interview >

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13 Sundance Film Festival Movies You Have To See

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Sundance-Film-Festival

Thanks to Richard Gere and the financial crisis, the Sundance Film Festival is returning to its indie roots this year. 

The festival, which starts Thursday, has long served as a launching pad for smaller movies, as it did last year in catapulting “Beasts of the Southern Wild” to four Oscar nominations. However, as the festival has grown in stature, it also has craved big-ticket movies with brand-name stars, from John Wells' "The Company Men" (Ben Affleck and a reported $15 million budget) to Antoine Fuqua's "Brooklyn's Finest" (Richard Gere and a $17 million budget).

“At previous Sundances, there was a real effort to try and have very high-profile mainstream films,” Jessica Lacy, head of ICM's international and independent film department, told TheWrap. 

But this new crop, she said, "all feel like unique, independent films. The distribution landscape lends itself to making and having more kinds of these films, and there are more opportunities for them to be distributed.”

Indeed, two recent Sundance premieres -- “Margin Call,” a drama about the early stages of the financial crisis, and  “Arbitrage,” Nicholas Jarecki’s film about an unscrupulous hedge-fund manager -- validated the increasingly popular strategy of simultaneously releasing films in theaters and on video by demand or other platforms.

Now, more buyers are trying new approaches, actors, directors -- and even stars are more willing to make the small movies. 

"Spectacular Now" brings back actress Shailene Woodley.

Do two Sundance darlings add up to a third? James Ponsoldt, whose “Smashed” charmed the festival in 2012, directed this adolescent romantic comedy written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, whose “(500) Days of Summer” debuted in 2009.

The film hits many of the same notes -- youth, romance, adventure, alcoholism and two people with very different perspectives on how to live. It also stars a pair of up-and-coming actors, Miles Teller of “Project X" and Shailene Woodley of “The Descendants.”



"Anita" is a must-see documentary.

It’s been more than 20 years since Anita Hill came into the public spotlight during the nomination hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, where she accused him of sexual harassment. But there has never been a better time for this documentary -- just months after an election year that featured a “war on women” and two candidates who came out with outrageous statements about rape.

Hill helped pave the way for new conversations about sexual harassment. Freida Lee Mock, who won an Academy Award in 1995 for her documentary "Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision,"  combines archival footage and present-day interviews to examine the politics of sexism, then and now.



"Prince Avalanche" features a bromance between Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch.

David Gordon Green made some good movies in the last decade, including “George Washington,” a coming-of-age tale set in North Carolina, and “Pineapple Express,” a stoner comedy-action movie. 

“Pineapple Express" marked the beginning of the end for Green, as his indie sensibility fell into the studio system with couple of forgettable comedies -- “Your Highness” and “The Sitter.”

Now he’s back in his comfort zone, writing and directing an adaptation of an Icelandic movie featuring the male bonding of Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch.

Think Judd Apatow meets rural America.



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Here Are Some Hilarious Bits From HBO's New Comedy About Silicon Valley

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silicon valley party

Last month came word that HBO, Time Warner’s premium cable network, had ordered the pilot episode of Silicon Valley, a half-hour comedy skewering the US technology industry. Now I’ve got my hands on the script, by the makers of King of the Hill, and can say it’s a whole lot better than Start-Ups: Silicon Valley, last year’s Bravo reality show.

Certainly, the glut of television shows about internet entrepreneurs in northern California says something about the ascendance of nerds in American popular culture. (Then again, Bravo and HBO have both recently made shows about journalists, who are not exactly having a moment.) In any event, Silicon Valley appears to succeed not by glamorizing its subject but cutting it down.

Here’s how the opening credits to HBO’s Silicon Valley are described:

Silicon Valley credits

In the pilot, six programmers are living together in East Palo Alto, each working on software they hope will make them rich, from a system for policing music copyrights to an app that “gives you the location of a woman with erect nipples.” Later in the episode, the music copyright software receives offers from, among others, a venture capitalist named Peter Gregory, who is very clearly Peter Thiel.

Peter Thiel Silicon Valley

It’s hard to get a sense of the show without reading the whole script, which is fast-moving, tightly written, and sharp. And of course, the script of a pilot isn’t exactly a full-fledged TV show. But what it reveals about HBO’s potential take on Silicon Valley is promising.

Running through the script is the idea that something is missing here, that behind the “shit brown colored hills of Mountainview” may not lie much, that it may all bevaporware. This point is driven home by a pair of single women in Los Angeles, whose sudden lust for Silicon Valley types stands in for the American audience’s idolization of the same.

Silicon Valley MSNBC

When they arrive in exceedingly suburban Palo Alto, however:

Silicon Valley Palo Alto

Bravo’s Silicon Valley, which was cancelled after a short first season, displayed a certain earnest enthusiasm for startup culture that struck many viewers as annoying and, worse, boring. HBO’s Silicon Valley is neither, and if the network ends up ordering a full season of the show, we’ll see if the American tech industry can handle a searing portrait of itself.

One sign that it would be a hit: another HBO show, Entourage, was written as a send-up of the Los Angeles entertainment industry but was received by that crowd as more of celebration. Whatever irony was lost on southern California may well turn out to be missing in the north, as well.

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Jennifer Aniston Is The New Face Of Aveeno Skincare Products – Here's Today's Buzz

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jennifer aniston ring

Jennifer Aniston announced this morning that's she's the new face – and body – of Aveeno. The actress will star in ad campaigns and share some of her own beauty tips.

Mark Wahlberg confirmed on "Anderson Live" there will be a "Ted" sequel and that he and the foul-mouthed teddy will make an appearance at the Oscars.

Now that he's a free agent, Rapper T.I. wants $75 million for his next label deal.

So far, there hasn't been any on-screen fighting between Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey on "American Idol."

Here's everything you need to know about Lance Armstrong's doping confession to Oprah last night.

Dwayne Johnson will play Hercules in Paramount's 2014 film.

There are casting calls being put out for a "Zombieland" television show.

Betty White received a boa constrictor for her 91st birthday.

SEE ALSO: How Sally Field gained 25 pounds for her role in "Lincoln" >

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Here's Barack Obama's Official Inauguration Playlist

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obama dancing

President Barack Obama's Inauguration is Monday; but he's is already celebrating.

Obama released an official Spotify playlist Thursday filled with 17 songs of far-ranging tastes.

Beyoncé and Stevie Wonder make an appearance, along with the Glee cast, Brad Paisley, and Nick Cannon.

Here's the entire track list:

1. "Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)" – Stevie Wonder

2. "I Was Here" – Beyoncé

3. "Mi Gente" – Marc Anthony

4. "Carry On" – Fun.

5. "New Day" – Alicia Keys

6. "Mud on the Tires" – Brad Paisley

7. "Turn Up the Love" – Far East Movement

8. "Edge Of Glory" – Glee cast version

9. "Your Smiling Face" – James Taylor

10. "Ordinary People" – John Legend

11. "Firework" – Katy Perry

12. "Breakaway" – Kelly Clarkson

13. "My Mic" – Nick Cannon feat. Biz Markie

14. "Something Special" – Usher

15. "Higher and Higher" – Walt Whitman

16. "Get Ready" – Smokey Robinson

17. "Future" – Mindless Behavior

SEE ALSO: Justin Timberlake's new single could be one of the biggest digital debuts ever >

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The 12 Craziest Things Celebrities Have Confessed To Oprah

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oprah winfrey

There’s a reason Oprah is one of the world’s most famous television personalities: She gets celebrities to crack faster than Anonymous can crack Shirley Phelps-Roper’s Twitter password.

Lance Armstrong isn’t the first to admit a shocking secret beneath Oprah’s sympathetic gaze.

Here are 12 other stunners that came to light in Harpo Studios.

1. Whitney Houston admits that she didn’t think crack was so wack.

After denying a drug problem in a 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer—the source of the infamous “crack is wack” declaration—Whitney Houston came clean to Oprah seven years later. She said her drug of choice was marijuana mixed with rock cocaine, a.k.a. crack.

She starts talking about her heavy drug use around the 29-minute mark.



2. Michael Jackson reveals that he’s suffering from vitiligo.

After years of public speculation that he was bleaching his skin for cosmetic reasons, Michael Jackson finally explained that he was actually suffering from vitiligo, a disease that causes depigmentation of the skin.

During the most-watched interview in television history, the King of Pop also confessed that he had, in fact, had plastic surgery—but not as much as everyone assumed.



3. Rihanna says Chris Brown is the love of her life.

When photos surfaced of how badly Chris Brown beat Rihanna after a pre-Grammy party in 2009, almost the whole world turned against him.

Over time, though, it became clear that Rihanna was still seeing her attacker. In an interview with Oprah last year, she stunned the world (sort of) by saying she was, indeed, still in love with him.

Soon afterward, she began posting pictures on Instagram and Twitter of the two of them hanging out in intimate settings.



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Iran Is Producing Its Own Version Of 'Argo' To Counter US 'Propaganda'

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Hollywood loves Argo, Ben Affleck's telling of a heroic sidestory in the 1979-81 Iran hostage crisis: The film is nominated for seven Oscars and has already won a Golden Globe and Critics' Choice Award for best movie of 2012, with Affleck picking up best directing honors.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is a little less enthusiastic about Affleck's take on the CIA-orchestrated rescue of six U.S. Embassy employees hiding out at the Canadian ambassador's residence.

It is illegal to screen the movie in Iran — Mohammad Hosseini, the minister of culture and Islamic guidance, callsArgo "an offensive act" driven by "evil intentions" — and last week Iranian director Ataollah Salmanian said he is writing and directing Iran's cinematic response.

The government-financed remake, The General Staff, "should be an appropriate answer to the film Argo, which lacks a proper view of historical events," Salmanian told Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency.

"I'm not sure what the Iranians found wrong" with Argo, Kenneth Taylor, the Canadian ambassador portrayed in the film, tells The New York Times. "It will be amusing to see what they take issue with." That's still unclear — Salmanian tells Merh that he will focus on "the 20 American hostages who were delivered to the United States by the revolutionaries," a likely reference to the five female and seven black U.S. hostages Iran released soon after the embassy seizure, plus another hostage suffering from multiple sclerosis released months later.

So The General Staff might sidestep the Canadian-CIA heroics altogether. But in general, Iran's Press TV explains, "the Iranophobic American movie attempts to describe Iranians as overemotional, irrational, insane, and diabolical while at the same, the CIA agents are represented as heroically patriotic."

That's probably what this remake is really about, Iran expert Barbara Slavin tells USA Today. "The movie Argo has embarrassed Iranians who would rather forget the hostage crisis— the violation of international law and the cruelty that it entailed." Long before Argo even came out, "Iranian officials have tried to portray the 444-day ordeal as not so terrible for the hostages and justified in light of Iranian fears that the U.S. would try to reimpose the Shah's rule."

For his part, Affleck welcomes Iran's response to Argo. Iran is "a sort of Stalinist regime" repressing "a nation full of millions of wonderful, amazing people," he tells The Hollywood Reporter. So the fact that "this Stalinist regime feels the need to sort of push back somehow, I think is a tremendous badge of honor."

It's worth noting that Argo has received some pushback from the other direction, too. It's "baffling" that Affleck "found it necessary to open Argo with a distorted and one-dimensional picture of life in Iran before the revolution," especially his "cartoonish vignettes" painting the deposed Shah Pahlavi as an evil "puppet" of the West, says Pahlavi loyalist Kambiz Atabai at The Daily Beast. And Britain's ambassador during the 1979 revolution, Sir John Graham, says he is outraged that Affleck says he turned away the six U.S. embassy refugees.

"Everyone I've talked to about Argo (all Americans) loved the first five minutes — you know, the quick history lesson about the half-century of the U.S. (and partially the UK) screwing over Iran, covertly deposing its leaders, and trying to reshape its government for our convenience," says Alex Moore at Death and Taxes.

Affleck gives you a hint as to why the hostage-takers are so angry, "without taking the Iranians off the hook for their own brutalities." And if Iran feels the need to finance a remake, when its "president is one of the world's pre-eminent Holocaust deniers," well, Salmainan's "'proper view of historical events' probably deserves at least a few grains of salt."

Iran's Argo revisionism won't just be left to Salmanian, though. Screenwriter Farhad Tohidi has also announced plans for a TV series, The Broken Paw, about the seizure of the U.S. Embassy. He tells the Mehr news agency that he will probably watch Argo— just for research purposes, of course.

If the government says that's alright, Tohidi may end up being one of the few Iranians who won't be at risk of doing jail time for watching the movie their government is trying to remake.

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How Sally Field Gained 25 Pounds To Transform Into The First Lady For 'Lincoln'

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It doesn't look like Sally Field went through much of a transformation to become the first lady in "Lincoln"; however, the 66-year-old actress gained 25 pounds for the role.

Though Field says she was already the same height as Mary Todd, during a new 20-minute mini-documentary for the film, the actress mentions that she gained the weight to fit Mrs. Lincoln's measurements.

On "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," Field shared it wasn't a fun feat.

"I tried to do it healthy, which I understand there isn't any way to do it healthy," she said. "I ate brown rice and these protein drinks made out of stuff called pro-Gain . . . Oh God, it was just disgusting. I never had a fun meal, basically. It just was discipline."

Field told Leno it took her nearly six months to gain the 25 pounds, and another year to lose it. 

"I began to work out like a mad fiend. I had two trainers. I really worked out hard 4 times a week," said Field. "I eventually had to have knee surgery. My little frame couldn't hold this amount of weight."

Nearly all of the costumes Field wore in the film are near exact replicas of clothes found in paintings or photographs of the first lady.

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Mary Todd Lincoln Sally Field

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SEE ALSO: "Iron Man" will be wielding Chinese gadgets thanks to a huge new product placement deal >

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Here's How Much It Cost To Buy An Ad In Oprah's Lance Armstrong Interview

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Advertisers spent up to 50 percent more than they usually would to advertise on OWN during Oprah's highly anticipated interview with Lance Armstrong.

Ad Age reports that the special was "notching about $100,000 for a two-unit package, with advertisers getting a spot in both nights of the special, according to buyers. That's about 40% to 50% more than advertisers would have paid for that much time during other major interviews or specials on OWN, they estimated."

The ratings still aren't out, but OWN drew in 3.5 million viewers when Oprah interviewed Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Christina.

Even though that set OWN's record for most viewers, the ratings were paltry compared to the 6 million-plus people that regularly tuned into the "Oprah Winfrey Show." Oprah's most watched interview, however, was when 90 million people tuned in to watch her talk to Michael Jackson in 1993.

SEE ALSO: American Airlines decapitated the eagle in its new logo>

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